A Different War
by TVfan
Summary: Eighth in Series The Vok invasion begins and Optimus is forced to ally himself with his greatest enemy, but can the Maximals and Predicons cooperate long enough to defeat the alien invaders?
1. Chapter 1

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Stasis".

A Different War

By TVfan

**Site of the Predicon Base**

Tigerhawk frowned as he and the Vok Acolytes inspected the site of where the crashed Predicon ship had been.

"This is unexpected," Tigerhawk sighed.

"So the Maximals won the war," Fang commented, "Does that mean we move on to the Maximals now?"

Tigerhawk looked over the scene. There were various scraps of metal lying about the area. None were big enough to be used for anything, and there was nothing left that could be used to make any technological device. There wasn't even any sign of a real battle. Just the fact that the Predicon base had exploded. The fact that there was no damaged software in the nearby area was enough to lead Tigerhawk to believe that most of the rubble had been removed.

"I do not believe their war is over," Tigerhawk spoke.

"I'm afraid I must agree with Fang, my lord," Scavenger spoke up, "This is the exact location where Megatron's ship crashed, and it's apparent the ship has been destroyed."

"Then why is there no computer wreckage?" Tigerhawk questioned, "All that is left is a few metal fragments which will be good for nothing."

"Wouldn't the Maximals have taken care of that stuff?" Heavsting asked as he hovered over the area.

"They have taken residence inside a ship that holds their ancestors," Tigerhawk answered, "They have no need for the technology that was on the Darkside."

"Then some or all of the Predicons have survived and moved their base," Scavenger sighed, "And I had hoped that your victory would have been swifter and far more glorious."

"It will be glorious, none the less," Tigerhawk answered in a scolding voice, "but our goal is to properly order the universe. Not to go after the insane ideas of glory that the Maximals and Predicons aspire to."

"Of course," Scavenger bowed to the transmetal two fuzor, "What are your orders?"

"We will need a base of our own," Tigerhawk spoke in a low voice, "And manufacturing it is well within my power. I want the rest of you to scout the surrounding area for any sign of the Predicons. They can not have moved very far."

"What should we do if we run into any Maximals?" Polar Claw questioned, "We've already been told that they are likely to know that we are here."

"The Maximals are just as responsible for destroying our plans on this planet as the Predicons are," Tigerhawk answered, "If they find and come close to you, destroy them. If you simply see them, ignore them while they are far away."

"And the Predicons?" Prowl asked.

"Same orders as with the Maximals," Tigerhawk answered, "If they come close, destroy them. If you spot them and they do not approach, simply watch and see where they go. Do not let them see you. I want our attack to a surprise."

Tigerhawk then leaped into the air and took his beast mode.

"Scavenger, you are to come with me," Tigerhawk commanded as he took off.

"Of course, my lord," Scavenger answered and took off after him.

**Tarantulus's Cave**

"I can't believe this," Carpenter complained to herself, as she dropped a rock from her mandibles, "A 'queen' forced to do manual labor."

"Your beast mode may be that of a queen ant," Tarantulus said from behind her, "But you are nothing more then a mere worker in Megatron's sight."

Carpenter cut into the rock with her mandibles again and removed another chunk of rock to make the new Predicon base more capable of fitting all the Predicons inside it.

"I don't need you people repeating what a 'great leader' Megatron is," Carpenter answered, "The male is an idiot and got his own base destroyed. He doesn't deserve to lead."

"I believe you misinterpret me," Tarantulus cackled, almost with a full laugh, "I do not truly follow Megatron either…"

"Do you have any wisdom as to who should be leader, or do you think that only you would be a good leader?" Carpenter questioned as she moved to cut away another piece of rock.

Once she was certain that Tarantulus was not going to back either her or some other femmebot she ranted once more.

"Typical," Carpenter grumbled, "That is the problem with all bots. Always thinking that they would be the best leaders. They fail to realize that femmebots are always superior. If the original Megatron had been a femmebot, the Deceptions would have won the Great War."

"I somehow doubt that," Tarantulus grumbled back, insulted that this transformer was so extreme in her thinking, "Regardless of other opinions, you do agree with me that Megatron is a poor leader? A criminal, if you will?"

"That much I can agree with," Carpenter answered.

"Good, because that is what he is in the eyes of the Predicon leadership," Tarantulus answered, "The Tripredicous Council is the leader of all Predicons. Megatron is rebelling against their orders."

"And let me guess, you're their spy?" Carpenter questioned.

"Why, yes," Tarantulus answered, "I am an officer of the Tripredicous Council."

"So if you serve them, why don't you just oust him and get it over with?" Carpenter asked.

"Because Megatron is far smarter then what any of the Tripredicous Council believed," Tarantulus answered, "Simply scheming will not work. They must send an army to crush him."

"And you're trying to recruit me?" Carpenter asked.

"Megatron has mastered ancient spark surgical techniques to take part of my spark along with part of Rampage's spark to make the present Scorpinok and Terrorsaur," Tarantulus explained, "They must be dealt with, and I will need some help in dealing with them."

"So you're asking me to commit suicide by fighting those two?" Carpenter asked.

"No," Tarantulus sighed, "I am asking you to help me, and to put aside your 'distrust' of non-femmebots. I have the technology to deal with their transmetal two armor, but I need help in insuring that once they are out of the way, any attempt by Megatron will be futile. He will obviously fight once his clone servants are defeated."

"And how many others have you brought into this little uprising?" Carpenter asked.

"You are the first I have approached," Tarantulus answered.

Carpenter was about to say something when Scorpinok walked into their section of the cave.

"Less talking more working," Scorpinok growled, "This cave needs to double in size by this time tomorrow."

Carpenter returned to her work, while Tarantulus sighed and switched to vehicle mode to carry off the pile of rubble that Carpenter had already deposited down on the ground.

Meanwhile, Megatron stood outside the main entrance to the cave with Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Inferno standing at attention before him.

"Until the new base is completed there is not much we can do concerning the Maximals," Megatron commanded, "I want you to patrol the area for any sign of them. Make sure they don't find us if they try to attack. If you are attacked by any Maximals, destroy them."

"Of course, Royalty," Inferno answered and took off.

Waspinator and Terrorsaur were silent as they lifted into the air to begin their own patrols. Waspinator followed after Inferno while Terrorsaur continued on his own. Megatron merely watched as the others depart. He then slowly stalked back into the cave that Tarantulus had hidden one of his many secret labs.

"You were very audacious in destroying my base, Optimus," Megatron spoke to himself, "But I will still win. You will pay for your audacity, yes."

**The Ark**

Meanwhile, life at the Ark was appearing to be just as chaotic. The knowledge that the aliens had returned was problematic enough, as most of the Maximals accepted that their war against Megatron had not left the planet itself unscarred, but the fact that the aliens had activated several of the Axalon's stasis pods to serve them, and at least recovered several of the blank stasis pods had also generated some depression, and a seemingly desperate suggestion from Optimus.

"What?!" Rattrap asked in a surprised voice as the Maximals gathered in the conference room, despite the fact that with the new additions, many were standing, "You want to go and help Megajerk?"

Optimus sighed, as he noticed various other Maximals nodding to agree with the transmetal rat.

"These aliens are a bigger threat to us then Megatron is," Optimus sighed, "And if they activated more pods then both our teams the Predicon teams combined, we won't have the numbers to last long against them if we fight them individually. We have to make truce and ally with Megatron if we are to have a chance."

"Megatron is like to go all out against these invaders," Depthcharge spoke, "Given that some of his followers are transmetals and at least four more are transmetal twos, they'll inflict heavy casualties on these aliens if they attack him directly."

"Yes," Dinobot nodded in agreement, "The best strategic option is to let them battle and destroy each other. We can capitalize on this by defeating those that survive."

"If this were merely another Cybertronian faction trying to take advantage of our current war, then even I might agree with you Dinobot," Airazor spoke, "But it isn't a Cybertronian faction that is coming. It is the Vok, their acolytes are bound to be more powerful then what anyone suspects."

"So we commit an act of cowardice and ask Megatron to bring his forces here?" Dinobot snarled back, "Remember that he would waste no time in destroying the offline Optimus Prime and the rest of your ancestors. Then with the Decepticons winning the war, and with him possibly leading them, he would not have even had to come here except for one short trip to insure that his rule is assured."

"He's about as optimistic as Rattrap," Cybershark commented from the sidelines.

"Dinobot is attempting to think of overall strategy," Rapther growled at him, "We can't risk the lives of the Autobots in the Ark to Megatron, and given his power, and the attitude of many of his followers, we can't simply weld the door shut."

"In addition that much of the ship would also be sealed off if we did that," Rhinox commented, "But still, these aliens, the Vok, or whatever they are called, are too much of an unknown. We will have to take the chance that Megatron will not try anything underhanded."

"Megs can't be trusted to do anything that isn't underhanded," Rattrap pointed out, "He'd shoot his own mother if he had one."

"Shut up, Rattrap," Optimus answered, "The point is final. We will ask for a truce with Megatron and try to work together until the Vok are defeated. I will want all possible backup plans in place should Megatron try to double cross us, but we have no choice in this matter."

"Do we know where Megatron is?" Flutter asked nervously.

Optimus looked to Cheetor. The transmetal two cheetah shook his head.

"I've run a few quick scouting patrols to see if I can locate where the Predicons have gone," Cheetor sighed, "But I haven't found any clue as to where they are."

"I'd be more worried as to whether or not these aliens are actually on the planet at this time," Depthcharge spoke up, "Or at least if their 'general' is. From all the past battle reports you have on them, their powers are not truly infinite."

"They hadn't completed their general when I escaped," Airazor sighed, "But they may have finished constructing him by now. Which means that if that is true, then their general is either on his way, or is already here."

Squeak was about to ask a question when there was a sudden light that appeared in the room. Everyone looked up to see a spark lower itself into the room from above. It then quickly moved down and went inside the computer terminal that they were all standing around. Tigatron's face then appeared on the screens.

"Tigatron!" Cheetor exclaimed as he leaned forward to take a closer look at the screen.

"Yes, little cat," Tigatron answered from the screen, "My spark has been released from the Vok, although I think it is because they had no interest in my spark, or Airazor's."

"We assumed that when Airazor escaped," Silverbolt spoke.

"As I'm sure she told you," Tigatron answered, "The Vok have combined our bodies and created a male transmetal two fuzor, whom they have named Tigerhawk."

A hologramatic projector then appeared above the screen and displayed the image of Tigerhawk.

"This is the Vok General," Tigatron explained, "He has no spark. The alien Vok are literally living inside of him. It is this general that you truly need to beat."

Optimus sighed and then turned to the other Maximals, "Dinobot, Rapther, Depthcharge, I want the three of you to begin working on a way to keep the original Autobots and Decepticons safe. Take whoever you need to help. Rattrap, Squeak, Cheetor, Silverbolt, I want you to join Airazor and me in looking for the new Predicon base. Contact me first once you find it."

**Elsewhere**

"The Standing Stones?" Scavenger asked as he and Tigerhawk prepared to land at a site that would be very familiar to the beast warriors, "But this location was only set up so that we could take samples or analyze the planet. Or communicate with any one we had on this planet."

"Its power is beyond more then a mere communications device," Tigerhawk answered in a cold voice, "Because the stones in this location are far more numerous then these mere standing ones, and my powers are far beyond anyone can predict."

Tigerhawk then raised his hands to the sky generating purple sparks from them, and then pointed his hands toward the ground around the standing stones. In one swift motion, those sparks became a beam of energy that shot directly into the earth. There was then a great rumbling coming from beneath the feet of both Tigerhawk and Scavenger. Then after a few seconds a stone mountain seemed to simply rise up out of he ground, with the standing stones at its peak. Once the tower stopped growing it looked like a great tower from what would become known in the future as a medieval European castle.

"Amazing," Scavenger spoke in awe.

"It is more then amazing," Tigerhawk answered, "The structure is hollow, with rooms and weapons for us to use against both the Maximals and Predicons."

"I assumed we would be attacking," Scavenger spoke nervously.

"Oh, we will," Tigerhawk nodded, "But eventually Megatron will realize that he can not defeat us on his own and will ask the Maximals for help. And if the Maximals decide to get proactive, all the more important to have this base."

"Should I recall the others?" Scavenger asked.

"No," Tigerhawk answered, "For now, I need to know where Megatron has gone. We can not attack him if we do not know where he is."

Scavenger nodded, "What do you wish me to do?"

"For now, you personally are to run a patrol around this area, make sure that no Maximals come snooping around here," Tigerhawk instructed, "I will be insuring that we otherwise win."

"Of course, my Lord," Scavenger bowed and took off.

**In the Air**

Waspinator and Terrorsaur found no sign of any Maximal advance in any sector in the direction that they originally headed out in.

"Waspinator sees no sign of Maximals," Waspinator buzzed, almost sounding depressed.

"That's good," Terrorsaur answered, "It means Megatron will not have to worry about interference in constructing the new base. Why do you sound depressed?"

"Dragon-bot hurt Waspinator if Waspinator not find anything," Waspinator buzzed weakly.

Terrorsaur groaned as the two changed course to begin patrolling another sector. As Waspinator followed both saw something dive back down below the tree level, as if it had been following them.

"Did you see that?" Terrorsaur questioned.

"Waspinator saw something dive below trees!" Waspinator buzzed.

"Probably the Maximals trying to follow us to our new base," Terrorsaur answered, "Let's go!"

Both then dove below the treetops and fired a large amount of darts and laser fire all around the general direction of where Terrorsaur had spotted the movement. In doing so, several trees were knocked to the ground and eventually two transformers were uncovered. One was an owl transformer and one was a wasp-like transformer that dwarfed Waspinator.

"The Maximals have cloned me!" Waspinator screamed and fired a series of darts at the other wasp transformer.

"No they haven't," Heavsting answered, "Heavsting, Organize!"

"Prowl, Organize!" the owl transformer said from beside the female.

"Our leader didn't wish an engagement this early, but there are only two of you," Heavsting spoke in a confident voice, "I don't think he would object to us destroying the two of you."

"Destroy us?" Terrorsaur questioned, "We are transmetal twos. Your armor is only on the basic level. You do not have a chance."

Heavsting and Prowl fired their own weapons at Waspinator and Terrorsaur. One shot knocked Waspinator to the ground while another shot threw Terrorsaur through a tree.

"I think it is you, who does not stand a chance," Prowl said confidently.

Terrorsaur got up, with a practical berserker rage in his eyes. He immediately began firing away at that Prowl and Heavsting. He landed a few shots that made them take a few steps back. Waspinator soon joined in, landing a couple of shots on Prowl. Waspinator's shots managed to knock the owl transformer to the ground, leaving Heavsting without any cover. Terrorsaur converted to his beast mode and flew at the Vok acolyte at supersonic speed.

On impact, Terrorsaur drove his beak through Heavsting's chest and knocked her to the ground. Terrosaur then returned to his robot mode and fired a shot from his lasers into the femmebot's shoulder. A desperation shot from Prowl knocked Terrorsaur off of her, but he was in turn knocked to the ground by another shot from Waspinator, who eventually charged forward and punched the owl transformer in the face. Prowl landed face down, about five feet away from Heavsting. She attempted to switch to her beast mode and try to escape when one of her wings was hit by a blast from Waspinator.

"Waspinator doesn't like being cloned," Waspinator growled.

"I'm not a clone!" Heavsting insisted before taking a shot to her legs from Terrorsaur.

She fell to the ground and could tell that her damage was beginning to become extreme. She was leaking mechfluid from the hole that Terrorsaur's beak had made. The armor on her shoulder was cracked and one of her wings was gone. Now, one of her robot mode legs was completely useless and the other wasn't much better. Prowl had also taken relatively heavy damage, but he was much better off then she was. Both Terrorsaur and Waspinator were beginning to converge on them.

"Prowl get out of here!" Heavsting urged the Owl transformer, while firing a few shots at Waspinator, "You can't carry me and… AAAARRRRGGGHH!"

Her call couldn't be completed as a shot from Terrorsaur destroyed her gun and thus her hand as well. Prowl moved to protest, but took a shot from Waspinator and Terrorsaur that threw him through a tree.

"Get out of here!" Heavsting yelled.

Prowl looked at the heavily damaged Heavsting and then noticed that both Terrorsaur and Waspinator were advancing on him. They had taken moderate damage, but it appeared easily repairable. He sighed and fired a few moderate shots. One took off one of Waspinator's wings and the other knocked Terrorsaur down. Prowl then fled as fast as he could, fearing what Tigerhawk would do to him since he had failed.

"Waspinator hate clones," Waspinator growled at Heavsting.

"She's not a clone," Terrorsaur said, "She's a femmebot and you are male. Complete difference."

"Interesting tactics for Maximals," Waspinator mused.

"These two aren't Maximals," Terrorsaur answered, "They don't bear the Maximal symbol. We'll need to bring her before Megatron before we kill her."

Waspinator then grabbed Heavsting by the hole that Terrorsaur had earlier driven into her chest.

"You'll be coming with Waspinator," Waspinator buzzed to her.

Heavsting nodded in fear, while secretly activating a tracking device.

**Elsewhere**

Rattrap and Squeak slowly made their way through the underbrush of a jungle area that was to the east of the Ark. Neither had seen anything and in their boredom, Rattrap was being Rattrap.

"And that is how we defeated Megatron for da first time," Rattrap finished his story.

"You made Dinobot save Optimus?" Squeak asked, not wanting to say that she was terrified of the transmetal two raptor.

"Yup," Rattrap gave bragging smirk, "If it weren't for me, he might have turned back to the Predicons a long time ago. And then I got to train him as a Maximal."

"Oh," Squeak said weakly, and peaked out from behind some bushes and then sighed, "I don't see anything."

"The Preds have all gone into hiding since we blew up their base," Rattrap answered, "I doubt they're very happy about it either."

"You can say that again!" came a voice from above them.

They looked up to see Inferno coming down from above. The Predicon fired two blasts that made Rattrap and Squeak roll away. Rattrap dove behind a tree, while Squeak hid amongst a rocky outcropping. Inferno kept firing.

"You will burn for destroying the colony," Inferno vowed.

"Will you knock it off!?" Rattrap yelled from behind the tree, "As much as I'd like to recycle you for spare parts, we ain't here to fight."

"You're here to surrender, then?" Inferno questioned as he landed.

"No," Squeak said weakly, while staying behind the rocks, "Optimus needs to talk to Megatron about aliens."

"The aliens have long been defeated," Inferno said confidently, "Why should I accept such a request?"

"Because they're back and they are after everyone," Rattrap spoke, "Now, why don't ya contact Megatron while contact Optimus."

Inferno sighed and activated his radio. This was bizarre action on the part of the Maximals, and he needed Megatron to discover the truth behind the situation.

"Yes," Megatron's voice answered over the radio.

"Royalty," Inferno spoke, "I have captured two Maximals that have a story that you need to come and hear."

"Why not bring them back to base?" Megatron questioned.

"They say that Optimus is the one to tell you the story and he is not among the two that I captured," Inferno answered.

"I'm on my way," Megatron sighed, "Hold them there."

"Yes, my Queen," Inferno answered.

"Optimus and the others will be here a few moments," Rattrap spoke up, "so don't try anything funny."

Five minutes later, Cheetor, Silverbolt, Optimus and Airazor landed between Rattrap and Squeak, while Megatron, Pestilence, Octopix, and Stingfin landed to face them. The Maximals showed slight surprise at the new Predicons, but tried their best to remain calm. Megatron was far more curious about the returned Airazor.

"How did…?" Megatron began to demand.

"I escaped the aliens," Airazor answered, "And that is why we have called for this meeting."

"And what is this meeting about Optimus?" Megatron questioned, "I ought to destroy you know for destroying my base, but Inferno told me you had quite the story to tell me."

"Our war needs to be put on hold," Optimus said in a voice that betrayed no emotion, "I'm asking for a truce. Only temporary of course, that way you don't have to worry about any moral questions about plotting against me."

"I'd plot against you anyway," Megatron reminded the Maximal commander, "Why should I accept an offer of a truce?"

"Because the aliens that have caused us both so much trouble in the past have returned to this planet," Optimus said in a calm voice, "And they are not happy with either my side or yours."

"I haven't seen any sign of these aliens," Megatron said with great disbelief, "Do you have any proof?"

"I am the proof," Airazor spoke, "These aliens are called the Vok, and when I escaped they were creating a transformer more powerful then any other, which is now here, on this planet and is called Tigerhawk."

Megatron looked around.

"I do not see him," Megatron spoke, "You are wasting my time. Now if you're not here to fight, then leave or surrender."

"He's here, Megatron," Optimus insisted, "And he's activated most of the stasis pods that the Axalon lost when the Beast Wars began. You have to believe me."

"I have no reason to," Megatron answered.

Optimus sighed and was about to leave, believing that Megatron would not be swayed, when a great crashing noise came from behind him. He turned to see Megatron looking at a heavily damaged, if not offline, transformer as Waspinator and Terrorsaur landed in the middle of the meeting.

"What is that?" Megatron demanded, looking down at the transformer.

"Maximal clone," Waspinator buzzed.

"It isn't a Maximal," Terrorsaur reported, "It doesn't bear their insignia. But I can't tell whose insignia it is."

Airazor took a closer look at the transformer.

"It's the Vok's," Airazor reported, "Does this prove to you that the aliens are back?"

Megatron looked down for a moment and then placed a foot on the transformer's chest and pressed down.

"What do you know about Tigerhawk?" Megatron questioned the transformer.

"He… will… kill… you," Heavsting said slowly before finally going offline.

Heavsting's chest then collapsed under both Megatron's strength and weight. Megatron then looked up to Optimus and the other Maximals. He then looked to see that both Waspinator and Terrorsaur had taken moderate damage. Not serious, but if this one transformer with only basic armor had been able to inflict damage on two transmetal twos, then the alien forces had to be stronger then anything they had seen before.

"This is proof enough," Megatron spoke in a voice, "You have a truce, Optimus, but only until this Tigerhawk is defeated."

"Agreed," Optimus answered as he shook Megatron's hand.

"I suspect that they are primarily here to fight me," Megatron then mused, "I sense that this 'alliance' will work better if it remains secret. If you wouldn't mind coming with me Optimus, I will explain everything."

Megatron then converted to his beast mode and flew back toward the new Predicon base. Optimus slowly sighed and then followed.

**Standing** **Stones Tower**

Scavenger was still amazed by Tigerhawk's power. It wasn't really a surprise to him, but it still amazed him. He had created a great stone tower complete with every sort of technological device, despite the fact that it didn't seem possible. Tigerhawk stood watching a small screen that showed what Heavsting had been watching. The transmetal two fuzor was angry that the Predicons had learned that his forces were now on Earth, but he was glad that Heavsting had at least managed to allow him to know the location of Megatron's base of operations. As he watched the screen, he ignored the arrival of his acolytes at the tower. It took Scavenger's speaking up to get his attention.

"My lord," Scavenger spoke, "All the acolytes have arrived."

Tigerhawk looked up to see all his living followers had in fact arrived.

"Very good," Tigerhawk nodded and then addressed the gathered acolytes, "We will be operating out of this base, but I doubt we will need it. While we lost one of our own today, Heavsting has given us the first key to victory. We now know the location of the new Predicon Base."

There were a few light cheers.

"You are all to prepare all your weapons for the coming offensive," Tigerhawk said in a cold voice, "We attack tomorrow."

**To Be Continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Stasis".

A Different War, Chapter 2

By TVfan

**New Predicon Base**

"You want us to ally with the Maxies?" Quickstrike moaned, "But I ain't killed one yet. That ain't fair."

Megatron slumped back into a chair he had had carved out of the cave wall to Tarantulus's hidden lair and the Predicon's new base of operations. Part of it was because he didn't like the truce with the Maximals anymore then Quickstrike did, but another part was that the Vok were a problem bigger then the Maximals. If they had landed an army on Earth, they had the potential to destroy both factions.

"The Vok are the bigger concern at the moment," Megatron answered, "Their interference will not be tolerated and the only way this faction will survive to conquer Cybertron will be through defeating them. And if we must ally with the Maximals to do it, then so be it."

"You promise that I'll get to kill something?" Rampage asked.

"It is imperative that these invaders be killed," Megatron said firmly, "Especially their leader, a transformer called 'Tigerhawk'."

Rampage answered with triumphant chuckling.

"When do you expect this new alien attack to arrive?" Supplex asked, "Given our current situation, it will take time to gather, steal, or manufacture the supplies we need."

"Unfortunately we can expect the Vok to attack soon," Megatron answered, "And will require you to keep watch in shifts. Inferno, you will command the first team. Scorpinok, you will command the second team. Terrorsaur, you will command the third team."

"And what will you be doing while we're doing all this?" Carpenter questioned.

"I will be planning our defense," Megatron answered, "We must make sure the Maximals take the brunt of the Vok offensive. And those not on the first watch are to continue working to transform this cave into a fitting base of operations."

Carpenter sighed as she moved into the small area that served as Tarantulus's lab inside the now growing underground base. Megatron had assigned her to aide Tarantulus in running the few detection sensors he had to locate any possible attackers.

"So have you found anyone else willing to help fight Megatron?" Carpenter questioned.

"Not as yet," Tarantulus answered, "I asked you because you have been quite critical of Megatron and to his face as well. Not exactly the smartest thing if you wish to have a long life, but it lets me know where you stand. The others are quite closed-lipped about their opinion."

Carpenter only gave a frustrated growl in response, "Bots."

"Look at it this way," Tarantulus commented as he activated a small sensor array that he had set up in his lab, "This will allow us to prepare fully for destroying Megatron."

"How?" Carpenter demanded.

Tarantulus pulled out a small spider-like robot with two arms that held small pincers. Its head appeared to only be a glowing lightbulb.

"With these," Tarantulus cackled, "Transmetal twos and Transmetals do have powerful armor, but they're still vulnerable to the cybervenom inside these drones."

Carpenter snatched it out of his hands and looked at it. The 'arms' didn't appear long enough to puncture a transmetal two's armor.

"You're sure these things can penetrate a transmetal two's armor?" Carpenter questioned.

"Positive," Tarantulus cackled, "It will take more then one to deliver enough cybervenom to bring one down, but they can do the job easily."

"What about those with the regular armor configuration?" Carpenter asked, "Is the cybervenom effective against them?"

"Even more so," Tarantulus answered, "The only difference between those with the original 'Beast Wars' armor, the transmetal model, or the advanced transmetal two is the strength of the armor. The transformer behind that armor is just as vulnerable as any. And since the original armor is not as strong as the transmetals, the drones can drive the delivery arms even deeper then on a transmetal and deliver a larger dose of cybervenom."

"And how will we keep Megatron from realizing this?" Carpenter asked.

"We'll test it," Tarantulus answered, "On Tigerhawk. If it works, then we use him to defeat Megatron."

**Outside the Predicon Base**

"Man, I still say we should let this Tigerhawk take the Preds out," Rattrap grumbled as he and the rest of the Maximals crouched in the thick foliage of the forest that was directly east of the new Predicon Base.

For many of the Maximals who had known the Predicon Base when it was the crashed Darkside, it was strange to see them living in a cave. Each and every Maximal could see Inferno and a handful of other Predicons guarding the entrance.

"We can't," Optimus sighed, "Mostly because we don't know how powerful Tigerhawk actually is. Suppose he wipes out the entire Predicon force by himself? Then we'd be caught alone against a force that we have no hope of beating alone."

"Not to mention that Tigerhawk was constructed out of Tigatron's body," Airazor added, "We need to actually capture him and remove the alien influence so Tigatron can return to his body."

"Doesn't sound entirely safe either way," Stagstripe commented, "In order to 'save' Tigatron we need to fight Tigerhawk, but we can not kill him."

"But fighting this battle could risk our own destruction," Snowstalker added.

"So what's the plan, Bigbot?" Cheetor asked.

"Right now we can only wait," Optimus sighed, "We've told Megatron that Tigerhawk will attack him first. For now we wait until the Vok attack begins."

"We need to sit here and watch the Pred base?" Rattrap groaned, "Couldn't we do somethin' better? Like watch paint dry?"

"Shut up, Rattrap," Optimus sighed.

"And after Tigerhawk's attack begins?" Dinobot asked, while sharpening his metallic talons on each other.

"Once the Vok attack begins, we are to wait until the Vok forces and Megatron's followers engage in close combat," Optimus answered, "By that time they won't realize that we are here until it's too late."

"Hopefully everything works out according to the plan," Silverbolt spoke, "Especially if we are to save the spark of a fellow Maximal."

"How long will we be waiting for the Vok attack?" Cybershark asked curiously.

"That we do not know," Optimus sighed, "they could attack at any time, though, especially since Tigerhawk has arrived on this planet."

**Standing** **Stones Tower**

"My lord," Scavenger spoke as he approached Tigerhawk inside the Vok stronghold.

"Yes?" Tigerhawk replied.

"Our forces are ready to begin the strike on the Predicon base," Scavenger announced.

Tigerhawk stood up from the small throne he had created for himself and began to approach the exit

"Excellent," Tigerhawk said slowly, "Let the attack begin."

Tigerhawk then took to the air. All of the Vok acolytes that could fly soon followed. Those that couldn't fly, ran after them as fast as they could.

**Predicon Base**

Carpenter was beginning to become bored listening to Tarantulus. The transmetal tarantula could not stop all his scheming. He went from one diabolical scheme to another, thinking each would eventually allow him to get rid of Megatron and his followers. Fortunately, her boredom was soon saved by something she didn't expect. It was a signal on the monitor that indicated that a large number of transformers were in route.

"I believe our alien invaders are arriving," Carpenter spoke up, breaking up Tarantulus's scheming.

The transmetal tarantula quieted down and approached the scanner and looked at it for a few moments.

"I do believe you're right," Tarantulus practically cackled, "Better go tell Megatron."

Tigerhawk was surprised to see the Predicons waiting for him and his soldiers as they arrived at the edge of a clearing that lead toward the Predicon Base. His optics particularly focused on a large red transmetal two dragon transformer that stood in the center of the Predicon lines. Tigerhawk waited for his entire force to arrive before speaking.

"There sure is a lot of 'em," Quickstrike commented as he looked at the opposing line of Vok transformers.

"Their numbers are irrelevant," Inferno answered, "They threaten the colony, and for that they will BURN!"

"I am Tigerhawk," Tigerhawk announced once all his forces were present and the Predicons were all watching him, "Emissary of the Vok."

Tigerhawk then focused particularly on Megatron, "Your form has changed, but I know you, Megatron. The Vok charge you with the willful disruption of time and space. Surrender to my army, immediately. Violence will not be tolerated."

Megatron watched this with a mixture of admiration and rage. Tigerhawk had amassed a powerful army, but there was no way he was about to surrender to anyone, let alone this alien invader.

"Megatrons don't surrender," Megatron answered as he took his robot mode, referring to both himself and historically to his namesake, "They conquer!"

Megatron then fired a blast of fire out of his dragon's head hand, knocking Nightwing out of the air.

"Predicons! Attack!" Megatron ordered.

"Destroy them," Tigerhawk ordered his Vok acolytes.

The two sides rushed toward each other, while Megatron returned to his beast mode and charged toward Tigerhawk. Devil fired a series of laser blasts at a smaller Vok acolyte that looked like his beast mode was that of a poison dart frog. Dart easily avoided these attacks and once he came close he fired two small needle-like darts from a double barreled gun that he had. Devil quickly found himself poisoned by cybervenom and was unable to move, his vital systems slowly going offline, one after another.

"Good bye, Predicon," Dart said triumphantly.

Dart continued on as Devil fell offline. Terrorsaur meanwhile flew at full speed at Prowl as the Great Horned Owl fired his feather missiles at the transmetal two Predicon. The resulting blast threw Terrorsaur back, but didn't do much to really damage his armor.

"You'll pay for that," Terrorsaur growled and fired his optics lasers.

The attack heavily damaged Prowl's wing and the Vok acolyte quickly lost altitude. Terrorsaur followed up on his attack by firing his optics lasers repeatedly at the falling alien invader. Prowl fired on Terrorsaur, but the transmetal two armor kept Terrorsaur safe for a long enough period of time to heavily damage Prowl at close range. Prowl landed hard on the ground and had to time to avoid Terrorsaur as he landed on the attacker's head, crushing it in one fell blow.

Megatron and Tigerhawk closed on each other at high speed. Both collided at high speed and lost altitude as a result. Tigerhawk turned his head and bit into Megatron's shoulder as they began to regain control of their flight pattern, but continued to grapple with one another. Megatron growled in pain as Tigerhawk's teeth pierced his armor and then reached out with his longer neck and bit the back of Tigerhawk's neck. When Tigerhawk roared with pain, Megatron pushed him back.

"This is MY world!" Megatron snarled, "You have no place in it!"

From their position in the forest, the Maximals watched the battle begin. As was thought, the Vok transformers appeared to actually be quite powerful, but against transmetals or transmetal twos, they were outmatched. Still, it looked as if their numbers would win out in the long run though.

"So, do we go now?" Depthcharge asked.

"Yes," Optimus sighed and activated his jets, "Let's go!"

Optimus flew threw the air and landed a punch on Tigerhawk's shoulder, knocking the transmetal two fuzor to the ground.

"Optimus Primal?" Tigerhawk spoke in a startled voice.

"I can't allow your invasion to succeed," Optimus answered.

"You've interrupted our war," Megatron added and launched a fireball at Tigerhawk, "That is why you have no place here!"

Jawbreaker wrestled with a large bison like transformer who was trying to crush him against the side of the cliff that made up the structure that the new Predicon base was built around. Thunderfoot was about to succeed when he was suddenly hit by a barrage of rockets that knocked him to the ground. The Vok acolyte looked up to see a transmetal female raptor walking toward him and his intended victim in her robot mode.

"A Maximal?" Thunderfoot gasped, "But you don't know about our attack!"

Rapther wrapped her tail whip around Thunderfoot's neck and let the energy dispensers in the whip practically electrocute Thunderfoot.

"A good friend of ours warned us that you were coming," Rapther said in a cold voice.

Jawbreaker then took advantage of Thunderfoot's position and fired at him with a missile launcher inside his crocodile's head hand. The resulting explosion ripped Thunderfoot to pieces.

Scorpinok was knocked to the ground by another of Gore's missiles. The triceratops Vok acolyte was a tough opponent merely because of his sheer size. He had already blown up Supplex and crushed Octopix in one attack. The Vok acolyte's beast mode head also served as a hand and shield for him while in robot mode and prevented Scorpinok's missiles from hitting their target. The transmetal two scorpion had, as a result taken much more damage then his opponent. He switched to his beast mode and decided to try a different strategy.

"You're tough, invader," Scorpinok growled, "But not tough enough."

"Funny you say that when I have you on the run!" Gore taunted back and moved forward to crush Scorpinok's head.

Unfortunately for Gore, Scorpinok caught his foot in his pincers and then drove his tail into the Vok acolyte's stomach. Gore screamed with pain as the toxic cybervenom in Scorpinok's stinger slowly paralyzed the alien invader. Scorpinok was soon knocked into unconsciousness by a blast that seemed to also include gasses that were dangerous for even Cybertronians to breathe in. He soon fell into stasis lock.

"Now to destroy you," Stinkbomb said in a threatening voice, only to be hit by powerful lasers that knocked him to the ground.

Dinobot slowly approached the fallen Stinkbomb and waited for the Vok acolyte to get to his feet.

"On your feet," Dinobot ordered.

"You won't kill me while I'm helpless?" Stinkbomb questioned.

"That would be dishonorable," Dinobot answered, "On your feet."

Stinkbomb lunged forward and tackled the transmetal two raptor and began delivering a series of punches to his face.

"You'll regret having that sense of honor," Stinkbomb snarled triumphantly, and prepared to shot Dinobot in the face a pointblank range with his weapon, which lay near the area where he had tackled the male raptor.

Stinkbomb was just about to fire when he felt something tear through his chest and literally rip out his fluid pump. He looked down to see Dinobot's talons imbedded in his chest.

"My honor does not prevent me from killing you," Dinobot growled, "You just can not be helpless."

Scavenger, himself, winced in pain as he felt two sets of dart-like projectiles hit him as well as a weak laser blast as he dropped the offline remains of the Predicon Pestilence. He turned to see Airazor and Flutter charging toward him. Airazor hit him again with darts, but the chief acolyte shrugged it off, despite that he was taking damaged and fired two shots and then knocked Airazor out as she dodged the attack. Flutter, however, was not as fortunate. As she dodged the first blast, she was hit by the second and allowed Scavenger to hit her again. He was about to finish her off when he was hit by fire coming from the ground.

"Oh, no ya don't!" Rattrap growled and fired on the diving acolyte.

His shots successfully knocked Scavenger away and he and Squeak rushed to check on Airazor and Flutter. Squeak came across Airazor first. The Maximal falcon seemed to be fine, but was still in stasis lock. Flutter was not so well. The butterfly transformer was heavily damaged and lay on the ground with bits and pieces broken off.

"I'm sorry," Flutter managed weakly and then fell offline.

Rattrap was unable to say anything.

"Is she?" Squeak asked.

"We gotta get 'em out of here," Rattrap said weakly.

Rampage was meanwhile enjoying every minute of the battle. He had so far torn Chatter and Optimus Minor to pieces with his pincers and had blown Dart to pieces with his missile launcher. He had taken serious damage in the process, but the transmetal crab wasn't about to worry about that.

"Ha, ha, ha," Rampage said triumphantly, "This is the most fun I've had since I destroyed your colony!"

Depthcharge then shot Rampage in the foot with his shark blaster. The transmetal manta had taken more damage then Rampage so far, and was in no mood to listen to the Predicon gloat over his past victories. Especially since he had to work with him for the time being.

"I'm not in the mood for your taunts, X," Depthcharge growled.

"I dare you to shoot me again," Rampage snarled, "See how long your truce lasts?"

"Don't tempt me," Depthcharge growled back.

Cybershark and Whaler were knocked to the ground by a powerful laser blast from Whiteout. The Vok acolyte was very powerful given its size and had already inflicted heavy damage on both of the two Maximals.

"Disrupt the Vok's order, will you?" Whiteout snarled and blasted Whaler in the face at close range.

"NO!" Cybershark screamed as he watched Whaler fall back, offline.

Cybershark then spun the fins that made one of his hand so that they would act like a grinder and lunged at Whiteout. He managed to tear off the arm that was holding the blaster, but Whiteout was otherwise fine and knocked Cybershark out with his other arm. The acolyte was about to pick up his blaster again when he was knocked into stasis lock by powerful laser blast from behind.

"There's got to be a way to put an end to this," Cheetor sighed as he rushed to get Cybershark out of the battle area.

Toxin tried in vain to try and escape a massive cobweb that he had been caught in. He had put the Predicon femmebot, Redback, offline, but had then gotten caught in the web. Unfortunately, the more he struggled, the more he became entangled in the web.

"Caught?" a voice asked from above him.

Toxin looked up to see transmetal two spider femmebot sitting in another section of the web, in its beast mode. Blackarachnia slowly approached the trapped robot, chuckling as she did so.

"You will never defeat Tigerhawk!" Toxin said urgently as Blackarachnia settled onto his back.

"Then I guess I'll have to settle for beating you," Blackarachnia answered back as she drove her fangs into Toxin and began injecting cybervenom.

Quickstrike ducked under a laser blast that was fired at him and returned fire with a blast of his own. This did little to slow either Wolffang or Trickster down. Both Vok acolytes continued to fire on him and both continued to advance. The Predicon fuzor ducked behind a rock that had fallen off of the cliff that the Predicon base was built into, as the impact of laser weapons against it was blowing large parts of the cliff up.

"This ain't the way I envisioned this," Quickstrike grumbled.

Quickstrike then leaned out from behind the rock and fired a blast that hit Trickster in the knee. Wolffang consequently then hit Quickstrike in the shoulder with a blast from his own gun, which threw Quickstrike into the side of the cliff that the Predicon base was built into. He looked up in horror as the two Vok acolytes approached. They were about to raise their weapons to fire when the sound of something that sounded like swords cutting through metal.

Quickstrike then looked up to see Stagstripe standing over him, using what where his beast mode's antlers as swords. The hands that Trickster and Wolffang were using to hold their blasters had been completely cut off. Stagstripe then kicked Wolffang back and brought his 'antler-swords' down on Trickster. The Vok acolyte then fell, offline.

"Come on," Stagstripe spoke to Quickstrike, "There are still a lot more out there."

Venom and Slither both faced off against each other slowly. Their battle had gone back and forth, each trying to use Cybervenom to destroy the other. Both had taken serious damage as a result of their battling, and Slither was not about to last much longer.

"Why don't you give up," Venom taunted, "I swear to make it quick."

"Never!" Slither snarled and lunged forward to strike Venom.

Venom lunged at the same time, their right hands, which were their beast mode heads, bit into the others opposite shoulder. Both screamed as cybervenom began to corrupt and destroy their systems. Both screamed in pain as they fell offline.

Fang grunted in pain as he fell to the ground and took a series of blasts from his opponent, the Maximal, Snowstalker. He finished rolling, only to be kicked by another transformer who Snowstalker had come to aid.

"You burn for your aggression," Inferno said triumphantly as he aimed his flame throwers at the fallen acolyte.

Fang raised his blaster and shot Inferno's arm, causing his aim to be off, and the Predicon ant's shot went wide. This didn't win Fang much time, however, as Snowstalker hit him with two more blasts from her blaster, knocking acolyte into stasis lock, while Inferno lunged forward and finished Fang of with the drills in his other hand.

"You have the Queen's respect for helping in the defense of the Colony," Inferno spoke slowly.

"Uh, okay," Snowstalker answered, not sure of what to say.

Silverbolt and Nightscream, meanwhile, were having all they could do to deal with Speed, who would fly between them and blast them at close range. The smaller acolyte was also able to avoid most of their fire and what few hits they did score, did little damage. Silverbolt tried to fire his feather missiles at Speed, but the acolyte only pivoted, and pulled Nightscream into his line of fire.

"Coward!" Silverbolt growled and charged intending to use his feather swords to slice the smaller Vok invader to pieces.

"Coward?" Speed asked, as she finished of the helpless Nightscream, "I'm just smarter then you that's all."

Silverbolt slashed at the acolyte's wings, intending to knock her back to the ground. He missed, but before he could turn around, he heard a scream come from where Speed had moved to. He turned to see Terrorsaur there with his hands around her neck. The transmetal two Predicon then literally ripped the smaller robot's head off.

"You just need to be faster," Terrorsaur chuckled as he dropped the now offline body of Speed back to the ground.

"This fight is not going well," Silverbolt grumbled, "They've killed several members of your faction and a far number that are still alive won't last much longer."

"And they've driven several of your comrades from the field, and killed a handful," Terrorsaur added, "but Tigerhawk has committed his entire army in this attack. It is a tough fight, but one that we will not lose."

"I think the opposite will happen!" came Scavenger's voice as the chief acolyte swooped between the Maximal and Predicon.

"Ohhh, Black Birdbot aggravate Waspinator by not holding still!" Waspinator groaned as he tried to blast Nightwing, but the Vok acolyte refused to surrender any ground.

"And why do you speak in third person?" Nightwing taunted and fired back at Waspinator, knocking him back a few feet.

Waspinator gave a buzzing growl and lunged toward the raven transformer, firing a wide barrage of darts at his attacker as he went. Several of his shots hit home, but Nightwing managed to get one shot off before he fell into stasis lock. Unfortunately for Waspinator, that shot took out his wings.

"Why meeeeeeeeeeee!" Waspinator wailed as he fell down to Earth.

Spine and Stingfin, meanwhile, were facing a much tougher situation. While the two had destroyed Saber, Polar Claw, and Ice Hoof had both of them cornered, and both had already taken heavy damage.

"I don't think I'll last much longer," Stingfin said in a frustrated voice as she fired a cybervenom dart at Ice Hoof.

The dart hit the acolyte, but it barely slowed down. Spine looked down toward the smaller Predicon. She had taken serious damage, and was leaking mechfluid. He fired a laser blast from what was his beast mode's head, which managed to bring Ice Hoof to a knee. Unfortunately that allowed Polar Claw to get a shot in at Spine, which threw him back several feet. Stingfin looked back to see that the larger dinosaur transformer was in stasis lock.

"If Megatron thought he was going to conquer the planet with this bunch of losers, then he was sorely mistaken," Polar Claw commented.

"It was too easy!" Ice Hoof added, "The femmebot's cybervenom is too weak. It took twelve hits on Saber just to make him weak enough for the dinosaur's lasers to do any work."

The two didn't advance any further as three missiles suddenly exploded in the area. Ice Hoof was thrown into the air while Polar Claw was knocked down. Both acolytes were surprised by this and began looking around to spot their new opponent. Stingfin looked up from her position behind a boulder to see two more missiles come flying through the air. One hit Ice Hoof before she could hit the ground and the other hit Polar Claw while he was down. Both acolytes exploded with the missiles. It was then that Scorpinok came into view.

"Perhaps it is you who thought foolishly," Scorpinok growled as the destroyed pieces of Ice Hoof hit the ground.

Tusk lunged at his opponent, intending to slice him open with his swords, which in his beast mode were his tusks. Dinobot caught the blow with his talons and then slammed the larger acolyte to the ground. Tusk growled, rolled over and threw his sword at Dinobot. The weapon slammed through Dinobot's right shoulder and forced the transmetal two raptor down to a knee.

"Now I have you," Tusk said triumphantly as he walked forward and prepared to slice open Dinobot's head with his other sword.

Unfortunately, Dinobot was far from being out and fired his optics laser at full power into Tusk's midsection. The blast threw Tusk back several feet until he landed in Rampage's pincers.

"Why thank you Dinobot," Rampage said triumphantly, "I would like to kill something."

Dinobot remained silent as Rampage tore the acolyte apart.

Meanwhile, Snapper spit out the small parts of Boxcon as the large snapping turtle transformer advanced on the Predicon base's entrance, intending to plant a charge inside it. Unfortunately, she only made it a few steps before she was hit by a powerful rocket barrage, which flipped her over. The acolyte transformed to her robot mode and found Rapther standing close to the exit.

"You won't be blowing anything up," Rapther swore and fired another rocket barrage at her.

Rapther's second volley threw her back along the ground. Snapper was slow getting up, as his armor had taken several key hits in both rocket barrages. She was about to advance again when a series of drills came through a boulder behind her and heavily damaging her legs. Inferno appeared shortly after Snapper fell to the ground again. Rapther noticed that like herself, Inferno had taken heavy damage, but the ant transformer was not about to give up.

"Burn, Invader, BURN!" Inferno screamed and blasted Snapper at close range with his flame throwers.

Meanwhile in a hidden area, under one of the many boulders that littered the battlefield, Tarantulus and Carpenter watched the devastating battle carry on. Tarantulus laughed as he watched both factions lose most if not all of the protoforms they had spent the better part of a week hunting down.

"So what now?" Carpenter asked.

"Now?" Tarantulus asked back with a chuckle, and pulled out a small remote, "Now we act!"

Megatron ducked under a tazer charge that Tigerhawk fired from one of the gauntlets on his hands. He then watched as Optimus hit Tigerhawk with a blast from his own weaponry.

"You'd best surrender," Megatron urged, "You can not defeat both the Predicons and the Maximals at once."

"You've done little to damage me," Tigerhawk growled and then turned to face Optimus.

The transmetal two fuzor then fired a massive missile from under its wing and hit Optimus directly in the chest with it. Tigerhawk didn't know where Optimus eventually landed, but he did know that that Maximal commander was in stasis lock. Tigerhawk then turned back to Megatron, who had fired a fire blast at him while he was firing at Optimus.

Tigerhawk used one of his wings to block Megatron's attack and easily shrugged it off.

"Your violence will not be tolerated!" Tigerhawk swore and charged toward Megatron.

When Megatron attempted to use his weapons against Tigerhawk again, the Vok Emissary flipped over and fired both his heavy Gatling guns, which were mounted under his wings, into Megatron's chest. This sent the Predicon tyrant spiraling down to the earth, falling into stasis lock the instant he hit the ground. Tigerhawk landed beside the body of the fallen dragon-like transformer.

"Now, to end this," Tigerhawk spoke, mostly to himself, and raised his hand to finish off Megatron with a tazer blast.

Tigerhawk never had the chance to do so, however, as a small insect-like robot landed on his raised hand and then slammed two raised arms into his hand. Tigerhawk immediately felt intense pain and moved his other hand to try and tear the robot off of him, only to be met by another robot hitting him, and then another, and then another. He roared with pain as the robots began to inject some kind of cybervenom into him. He looked around to see all the transformers who were still online had fallen victim to the same attack as he was.

"No!" Tigerhawk exclaimed, "No! How is this… happening… to… m-…"

Tigerhawk said no more as he fell to the ground in stasis lock. As the sound of silence now carried over the area, Tarantulus and Carpenter emerged from inside their hidden cave. Tarantulus walked up to the stasis locked Tigerhawk with a triumphant look on his face. He then spoke calmly and slowly, betraying his jubilant feelings.

"Now, you're mine!" Tarantulus exclaimed triumphantly with a maniacal laughter following.

**To Be Continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Stasis".

A Different War, Chapter 3

By TVfan

**Forest**

"Optimus!" Rhinox yelled into the Maximal commander's ear.

Optimus slowly stirred and eventually sat up slowly. He groaned heavily as he did so.

"Ungh," Optimus groaned, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Rhinox answered, "Cheetor, Rattrap, and Squeak returned to the Ark with Cybershark and Airazor. Both looked pretty heavily beat up."

"Tigerhawk is stronger then anyone could have imagined," Optimus spoke slowly, "Megatron and I could only just maintain a stalemate with him. His 'acolytes' are also powerful."

Rhinox looked over the Maximal commander and noticed heavy damage had been done to his chest armor.

"Looks like Tigerhawk eventually got you," Rhinox commented, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Optimus sighed, "Where are the others?"

"I sent the others ahead to check for any more wounded," Rhinox answered, "The Ark's sensors seemed to indicate that the fighting around here was over, or had at least stopped for a while."

Optimus sighed and slowly stood up. He then focused as much power as he could to his audio sensors. Other then the faint screeching of animals, the entire region was quiet. He couldn't even hear the faint sounds of a battle taking place.

"Either Tigerhawk's missile threw me farther then I thought, or you're right," Optimus sighed, "The battle has stopped. We'd better go check it out."

It was then that Cheetor suddenly appeared nearby, looking as if he'd run extremely hard.

"Cheetor!" Rhinox gasped, "What is it?"

"Rhinox, Big-bot," Cheetor spoke slowly, as if he'd seen some ultimate horror, "There's something you need to see."

"What is it?" Optimus asked.

"It's only something that you can see," Cheetor managed to answer.

**Inside the Predicon Base**

Tigerhawk slowly awakened to find himself webbed to the wall of a dark cave. He struggled to free himself, but found that the webs prohibited his movement and there were several wires that had been pushed through his armor. Those wires were somehow draining him of his strength. He continued to try and free himself as the lights suddenly came on and two transformers came in.

"Ah," cackled Tarantulus, "You're awake!"

Tigerhawk looked around to see that he was in a fairly high tech lab with a large energy siphon hanging from the ceiling and pointed at him. He then watched as Tarantulus moved toward the main computers while the other transformer walked back and disappeared through a trap door.

"Tarantulus," Tigerhawk growled with venom in his voice, "The Vok know you all too well."

"The Vok?" Tarantulus taunted, "A simple name for so arrogant a race."

Tarantulus then cackled some more as he watched Tigerhawk struggle in the web. He then gestured to the energy siphon.

"Keep struggling if you like," Tarantulus cackled, "In a few clicks my datatracks trimmer will destroy the alien influence within you, and then, you will serve me."

"I would never serve one as evil as you," Tigerhawk vowed.

"You'll have little choice," Tarantulus answered, "And while you deal with the rest of the transformers here, I will complete the destruction of the Ark."

That horrified Tigerhawk more then the spider's threat that he would have to serve him. The Vok had plans that the Ark would lead to a greater Cybertronian War in the future and prevent them from ever threatening the Vok. He quickly decided he needed to do something to stop Tarantulus, even if it was only to talk him out of it.

"You can't do that," Tigerhawk urged, "The time-storm from such an action would wipe out your entire race."

Tarantulus cackled again.

"Only those descended from Autobot or Decepticon," Tarantulus replied, "But I, and the Tripredicus Council have different origins. Under our rule, Cybertron will conquer the universe, and your precious Vok!"

"You're insane," Tigerhawk growled.

"So they say!" Tarantulus laughed and made various noises and gestures to add humor to his point, and began to prep the energy siphon.

"And how do you plan to destroy the Ark?" Tigerhawk questioned, "You don't have the power to seriously damage any of the transformers inside and therefore can't destroy the ship yourself."

"That's not for you to know," Tarantulus cackled and pressed a button activating the energy siphon.

Tigerhawk screamed in agony as electricity began to pour into his body in a flowing pattern so that it forced his energy reserves into the wires that had already weakened him so that he couldn't escape the web and began to slowly grow weaker.

**Outside**

Optimus gasped in shock at what he saw. Every single transformer that had been fighting earlier was lying on the ground. There were fragments, which meant that there were a few that were permanently offline, but many might have only been in stasis lock. Rhinox looked just as horrified behind him and Rattrap, Squeak, and Cheetor were only standing in silence in front of him.

"How many are only in stasis lock?" Optimus asked.

"We don't know," Rattrap answered, "I haven't been able to move."

"Begin checking them," Optimus ordered, "We have to figure out who is dead and who is only in stasis lock."

"What should we do with the Predicons?" Squeak asked, "Or the Vok acolytes?"

"Move all the Maximals towards the forest," Optimus ordered, "Move the Predicons toward their base entrance and bind the Vok acolytes up in the center."

Optimus slowly approached the closest offline transformer to him, which by chance happened to be the sprawled out body of Megatron. The red dragon transformer looked like he'd taken several high powered bullet wounds that were strong enough to puncture his transmetal two armor in multiple places. Checking the Predicon tyrant's systems, Optimus found that his major opponent in the Beast Wars was still alive.

"Hey, Big-bot?" Cheetor asked slowly.

"What is it?" Optimus sighed as he lifted Megatron up onto one of his shoulders.

Cheetor motioned to the offline body of Nightscream, "What do we do with the ones who… who aren't going to be online any more?"

Optimus sighed and looked down, feeling very depressed. No Maximal was ever truly a warrior at heart. Optimus had always considered himself an explorer first and foremost. While he was certain that Dinobot could somehow rationalize the death and destruction that he saw around them, Optimus was sure that he personally couldn't, and he didn't think that any of the other Maximals could either.

"Line ours up in an area near those that are only in stasis lock, but not too close," Optimus ordered, "We'll take them back to the Ark so that they can be properly recycled. Line the Predicon dead up near their stasis locked members, but again not too close. Lay the Vok dead at the edge of the clearing."

"Right, Big-bot," Cheetor answered in a voice that sounded just as depressed as Optimus felt.

Optimus lay Megatron down near the entrance to the new Predicon base and watched as much of the current effort had moved to removing the dead from those that were still online. Those that were only in stasis lock were treated with extreme care, as Rhinox was frantically working to diagnose their injuries and what was necessary. Megatron slowly came back on line to view what was going on. He immediately got up and looked ready to kill something.

"What is going on?" Megatron demanded, "Where is Tigerhawk?!"

"Didn't you beat him off?" Optimus asked, "He knocked me out with a missile leaving you to face him alone."

"As much as I would appreciate the compliment, Primal, no I did not beat him," Megatron growled, "He took me out with a pair of gatling rounds shortly after he took out you."

"So he's still around here, somewhere?" Squeak asked nervously looking around for any sign of the transmetal two fuzor.

"Quite possibly," Megatron answered.

"No, he couldn't be," Optimus answered, "If what we know about the aliens is accurate, if he had won, no one here would be alive. He wouldn't have left anyone alive and at his mercy. Leaving so many online, albeit in stasis lock, goes against everything we know about the aliens."

"But we didn't beat him," Megatron answered, "Tigerhawk had to have won."

"Uh, guys," Rattrap spoke up, "As strange as it is that we're having a practically civilized talk with Megatron, here, there's two things that no one's found."

Rattrap then held up a small insect-like drone.

"One is identification for these things," Rattrap spoke as he flicked the drone to Optimus, "The other is the location of Tarantulus. He ain't among this group, dead or alive."

Megatron then snatched the drone from Optimus's hands and looked at it closely. A violent snarl frozen on his face.

"Oh that treachous spider!" Megatron roared, ignoring his entirely Maximal company, "Oh he will pay dearly for this outrage, yes!"

"What?" Optimus asked, "What has he done?"

"These are little drones that he is fond of using doing various tasks," Megatron answered holding up the drone, "More then likely he used them to take out all of the fighting parties while they were distracted."

"But what would he want with Tigerhawk?" Cheetor asked.

"When I find him," Megatron answered as he began to walk into the Predicon base, "That is what I'm going to find out."

Optimus looked after the Predicon tyrant and then back at his own followers.

"Keep up your work people," Optimus ordered, "I'm going to make sure Megatron doesn't double cross us once he finds out Tarantulus has done."

**Inside the Cave**

"Are you sure that those drones can hold them all in stasis lock for long?" Carpenter asked as she and Tarantulus made their way down a narrow staircase that was leading to a hidden lower level that Tarantulus had managed to keep hidden from Megatron and the other Predicons.

"The drones will function without problem," Tarantulus answered, "Tigerhawk only woke up because of the power of the alien influence within him. Now that that is gone, he is no more powerful then Optimus or Megatron and both are weak compared to the great intelligence that I posses."

"You do understand that you are to remain a drone in the new order?" Carpenter questioned.

"Probably so," Tarantulus cackled, "But it will not be an order headed by you."

"So, what's to keep Optimus from coming after us," Carpenter questioned, "He wasn't present when you unleashed the drones and from what I had followed, there was at least one other Maximal that wasn't present as well."

"That is where the new drone comes in," Tarantulus said confidently, "He will hold them off until we can activate our ultimate weapon."

"You've yet to tell me what this weapon is," Carpenter said suspiciously.

"Just making sure you're loyal," Tarantulus answered, "The last thing I want is to be put offline when I'm not looking."

"If your weapon produces the world that I want, you have no worries about me betraying you," Carpenter answered.

"Good," Tarantulus said confidently, "Good."

"I don't know why you're following me," Megatron growled as he and Optimus walked through the cave that leads into the new Predicon base, "This is a Predicon matter."

"He targeted members of my faction too," Optimus answered, "Whatever he's planning, it will involve both factions."

Megatron was about to argue when they turned a corner that lead into Tarantulus's lab, only to be hit by a powerful electrical charge. The charge knocked both of them against the wall and they each looked up to see Tigerhawk lowering his gauntleted arm. A large arachnid-like device was fashioned to his chest.

"Lord Tarantulus forbids you entry into his sanctum," Tigerhawk spoke in an almost drone-like manner.

"He's somehow overridden the alien influence on Tigerhawk," Optimus spoke as he and Megatron got back up.

"That doesn't matter," Megatron growled and tackled Tigerhawk, "He is as good as dead!"

The two rolled on the ground for a few moments before Megatron managed to pin Tigerhawk down, and use his dragon's head hand to blast Tigerhawk in the face with fire. Tigerhawk roared in response and lifted a missile launcher mounted under one of his wings and fired at Megatron at point blank range. The resulting explosion threw Megatron against the ceiling of the cavern and knocked Optimus back. When Optimus looked up again, he saw Megatron land on top of a table in the center of the room. He could hear groans, but it didn't look as if Megatron was going to be getting up anytime soon.

"You shall not pass," Tigerhawk spoke as he and Optimus regained their feet.

Optimus eyed the transmetal two fuzor for a moment. In the earlier battle, when Tigerhawk appeared as the alien's Emissary, even the most powerful blows that Optimus and Megatron landed on it did nothing to it. Now, after taking one blast of fire from Megatron's arsenal, his helmet, visor, and face did show some visible signs of damage. Obviously, without the aliens powering him, Tigerhawk was no longer so invincible an opponent.

Optimus activated the laser weapons that he stored within his chest and fired at the arachnid on Tigerhawk's chest, hoping to destroy it and break Tarantulus's control over the robot. The shots destroyed the drone that Tarantulus had implanted and threw Tigerhawk against a row of computer screens. Optimus entered what had to be Tarantulus's lair to see that Tigerhawk was indeed offline, but other then some minor structural damage, he was in good condition.

Optimus then moved to look over the lab to see if there was anything that Tarantulus had left behind that might help him. Above the table that Megatron was still lying on and suspended from the ceiling was a large energy siphon. Tigerhawk had apparently destroyed its controls when he hit them after Optimus fired. Unfortunately, Optimus didn't see anything that he thought might help.

Optimus was about to turn to Megatron when he heard a faint voice speak out.

"Help me," a weak voice spoke from behind him.

Optimus turned to see a large web spread out over a part of the cave wall and saw two alien skulls entangled in the web. Both looked very weak.

"What the?!" Optimus gasped in surprise.

It was the first one who spoke.

"We are the Vok representatives," the first alien spoke, "We need your help."

"Why should I help you?" Optimus questioned, "You sent Tigerhawk hear to destroy my faction along with Megatron's. You abducted two members of my team. You attempted to wipe out all life on this planet just because we were here. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't let you two rot there?"

"If you don't, your entire race is at risk for destruction," the second alien spoke, "The one you call Tarantulus has sinister plans."

"We as individual members of the Vok are already dying," the first added, "But if Tarantulus succeeds, our race may not survive and yours definitely will not."

"What is he planning?" Optimus asked.

"The destruction of the Ark," the second alien answered as Optimus's optics widened as far as they possibly could.

**Underground Cavern**

"A submersible?" Carpenter questioned, "That's your weapon?"

"Of course not," Tarantulus answered, "But the weapon is underwater."

Carpenter looked around to see large waterproof containment pods laying about the platform they were on. There were also a few small computer panels, but they only looked like monitoring stations.

"How long did it take you to build all this?" Carpenter asked.

"Months," Tarantulus answered simply, as he pressed a button, opening the hatch to the submersible.

"Why?" Carpenter asked, "What is this weapon?"

"The Maximals have taken possession of one of the oldest relics of Cybertron," Tarantulus answered, "The Ark. The legendary ship that held the most powerful Autobots and Decipticons before the Great War was even a speckle of light on the horizon of history. However, the relations between the Autobots and Decipticons were not all that peaceful, even before the Great War. The Ark had come to Earth to leave the Decipticons on the planet as political prisoners for crimes they had committed on Cybertron and guard the Earth as a penal colony. Unfortunately for them, the Decipticons sent their most powerful warship to deal with the situation, since it largely seen that the Decipticons on board the Ark were going peacefully."

"What happened to the Decipticon ship?" Carpenter asked.

"In the end, both ships shot each other down," Tarantulus answered, "It was assumed for some reason in the datatracks of Cybertron that both ships crashed in mountainous terrain and could never fly again. This was true of the Ark, but not the ship that shot it down, the Nemesis."

"Why?" Carpenter questioned, "Even the Great War is Ancient History now on Cybertron."

"The Tripredicus Council has files on the fate of the Nemesis," Tarantulus answered, "Given the angles that Nemesis and the Ark entered the Earth's atmosphere, it is impossible that both of the ships landed on solid earth. One had to have landed in water. Since the Ark is the one that landed on the ground, it is the Nemesis that landed in water."

At that moment, the submersible then rounded a turn and Carpenter could see a large half submerged spaceship ahead of them.

Above them on the platform that they had just left, Optimus arrived to find the platform largely empty. The Maximal commander looked around for a few moments, trying to figure out where Tarantulus had gone to. The Predicon could stick to almost any surface while in his beast mode, but Optimus didn't think that would help him much as he saw a large amount of water below the platform.

"He's found an aquifer," Optimus mused to himself.

"What he's found means nothing," Megatron growled, although somewhat weakly, "It's where he's hiding that's important."

Optimus turned to see that Megatron had indeed recovered enough to follow him, although he was now in beast mode and letting his own systems repair himself.

"No, he has to have found something," Optimus answered, "Tarantulus managed to separate the alien influence from Tigerhawk, but he apparently told the aliens part of his plans before he left."

"Oh," Megatron replied, "And what is that treacherous spider planning?"

"According to the aliens, the destruction of the Ark," Optimus answered.

Megatron's dragon yellow eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed in anger.

"Traitorous Unicron Spawn!" Megatron roared and blasted fire at the roof of the cavern.

"What?" Optimus asked.

"Tarantulus is, or at least claims to be descended from the various spawns of Unicron that were created in the later stages of the Great War," Megatron snarled, "There is some rumor that the Tripredicus Council shares the same origin. That's why he volunteered to join my party when I first came here. The Council didn't send him to spy on my, it was to further their own plans."

"So these Unicron spawns would survive the time storm that would result from the Ark's destruction?" Optimus asked.

"Precisely," Megatron answered, "With the Ark destroyed the Great War will erupt on Cybertron, not on Earth. And with the most powerful transformers gone, Optimus Prime for the Autobots and the original Megatron for the Decipticons, Unicron, when he awakens will find no opposition that can stop him from destroying Cybertron. Which is something I can not allow."

The two leaders then approached a computer console and Megatron began operating it with his clawed hands. After a few moments a map came up and showed a small submersible approaching a large square that looked like the Decipticons' insignia.

"By the Matrix," Optimus gasped, "It's… it's…"

"The Nemesis," Megatron finished.

**Outside**

Cheetor and Rattrap had just returned from Ark after carrying another of the stasis locked Maximals back to their base to find Megatron, in beast mode, and Optimus coming out of the Predicon base. They were curious to see that Optimus was carrying Tigerhawk over his shoulder. Both slowly approached their commander.

"What'cha got there, boss-monkey?" Rattrap asked, "Souvenir?"

"Take Tigerhawk back to the Ark," Optimus answered, "See if Tigatron's spark will be able to bring him back online."

"What about the aliens, Big-bot?" Cheetor asked.

"The Vok themselves are dead," Optimus answered in an extremely serious voice, "It is imperative that you get Tigerhawk back online as a Maximal."

"Right," Cheetor answered and Rattrap didn't even bother to argue, sensing Optimus's mood.

The two Maximals then took Tigerhawk from Optimus and began to make their way out. Optimus then turned to where Megatron had headed, and found him poking Rampage's stasis locked body with one foot. He was about to investigate when Rhinox approached.

"What's going on Optimus?" Rhinox asked, "Did you find Tarantulus?"

"It's more about what Tarantulus found," Optimus answered gravely.

"What did he find?" Rhinox questioned.

"The Nemesis," Optimus sighed.

"Slag," Rhinox cursed slightly, surprising Optimus a little, as he had never heard his close friend and advisor curse in such a way.

"He intends to destroy the Ark," Optimus answered, "As soon as all our people are aboard, I want you to begin preparations for moving it."

"Move the Ark?" Rhinox gasped, "Optimus, despite the fact that the Ark is structurally in better condition then the Axalon was, there is no way that it is going to fly again."

"And if Tarantulus destroys it, we have no past," Optimus pointed out, "I need you to do the impossible."

"We'll have to leave our dead here then," Rhinox told his commander.

Optimus sighed and looked down, "I don't think we have a choice in that matter. We've got to protect the Ark."

Rhinox slowly nodded and moved on, intending to move the next stasis locked Maximal back to the Ark. Optimus then moved to approach Megatron, who so far had had no luck in getting Rampage back online. Optimus did notice however, that most of the transmetal crab's damage had apparently been repaired.

"What are you doing?" Optimus demanded.

"Getting Rampage online again," Megatron answered, "The Nemsesis can not do anything if it is destroyed."

"You're just going to send him in alone against that battleship?" Optimus questioned, "Tarantulus would just destroy him."

"Not while it's still underwater," Megatron answered, "its weapons were designed to function in the vacuum of space or the moderate pressures of a planetary atmosphere. Under the intense pressures of the ocean floor, the Nemesis's weapons will not work, and Rampage will be able to take control of the ship easily. Tarantulus can't beat him."

Optimus frowned on the situation while Megatron continued.

"And unless your faction has an 'immortal' transformer that can survive being submerged in salt water, then you're left with no other option but to accept my plan," Megatron answered and nudged Rampage again.

Optimus sighed, "Fine, I'll just help prepare my group for when the Nemesis surfaces."

"Yes," Megatron smiled, "you do that."

Once Optimus was out of range of Megatron's voice, Rampage finally stirred as he came back online.

"Oh man," Rampage grumbled as he pulled himself up onto his legs, "What hit me?"

"I believe that would be one of Tarantulus's tricks," Megatron answered, "Now come with me, I have job for you to do."

"Do I get to kill something?" Rampage questioned.

"Why yes," Megatron said with a smile, "Tarantulus and any other traitor he's recruited to help him. If you'll follow me."

**The Ark**

Cheetor and Rattrap were exhausted when they got Tigerhawk's body to the central computer room where Tigatron's spark had been coordinating things. Tigatron's face then appeared on one of the screens that were nearby.

"How are things going?" Tigatron asked.

"Fairly well," Rattrap quipped, "We got ya a new body."

Tigatron's face on the screen turned to see Tigerhawk's body lying between Rattrap and Cheetor.

"By the Matrix!" Tigatron gasped.

"Don't worry," Cheetor spoke up, "Optimus said that the alien's influence on Tigerhawk has been destroyed."

"Good to know," Tigatron answered.

"So, why don't ya come out of that computer and say 'hello' to the new you?" Rattrap questioned.

The image of Tigatron visibly sighed and then the screen went dead. After a few moments, Tigatron's spark then emerged from the computers and slowly floated over to Tigerhawk's body. It then slowly descended into the transmetal two fuzor's chest. Cheetor crossed his fingers as he watched. After a few moments, Tigerhawk opened his eyes and sat up slowly.

"Tigatron?" Cheetor asked slowly.

"I think it should be Tigerhawk now," Tigerhawk glanced at his wings and the transmetal two tail feathers that hung down on the front of his waist, "As I am composed of two animals now."

"You okay now?" Rattrap asked.

Tigerhawk slowly stood up and looked himself over for a few moments.

"It feels good to be truly alive again," Tigerhawk answered, "Although we can not waste time."

"Yeah, Optimus wants us to get all the Maximals that the Vok knocked out back here," Rattrap interrupted.

"No, it is something far more serious," Tigerhawk answered, "Something concerning Tarantulus."

"Yeah, he double crossed Megs and split," Rattrap interrupted, "Nothing that won't be expected from Tarantulus."

"It's more then that," Tigerhawk said almost urgently, "There is something that he told Tigerhawk… the old Tigerhawk, the one that the aliens controlled, that are still in my memory banks."

"What is it?" Cheetor asked nervously.

"Tarantulus has somehow found the means to destroy the Ark," Tigerhawk spoke in a grave voice.

"WHAT?!" Rattrap gasped in shock, "That ain't possible. Nothing could destroy the Ark. Shoot, even this volcano's eruption only woke up the transformers inside, and it didn't destroy the ship."

"How does he intend to do that?" Cheetor asked, "How could he destroy the Ark?"

It was then that Optimus and Rhinox returned with the last of the stasis locked Maximals. Optimus himself had heard Cheetor's question.

"The Nemesis, Cheetor," Optimus answered, "The Nemesis."

**To Be Continued…**


	4. Chapter 4

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Stasis".

A Different War, Chapter 4

By TVfan

**Ocean Floor**

Rampage slowly moved forward along the railway tracks that Tarantulus had placed in order to get his submersible to the ancient Decepticon ship, Nemesis. Small fish swam quickly out of his way and he crushed a few other small pieces of ocean life with his tank treads. While the transmetal crab was extremely happy to be unleashed on a target, he was still curious about the entire situation. Tarantulus couldn't swim, at least not well, and his circuitry would probably short-circuit when completely underwater and he would be crushed to death at the bottom of the ocean.

"You ever wonder how that spider managed to build a railway underwater?" Rampage questioned into his radio.

"He probably just manufactured some sort of robotic drone to do the work for him," Megatron answered back over the radio, "Have you located the ship yet?"

"Not yet," Rampage answered, "That spider's scale must be off by quite a bit. There's also a lot of raw energon in the area."

"Raw energon?" Megatron asked, temporarily distracted from the present mission.

"Yes," Rampage answered.

"That will be something worth investigating later," Megatron spoke, "Continue at full speed until you reach the Nemesis. Once there kill Tarantulus and whomever he's talked into joining him and pilot the ship to a suitable landing zone."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Rampage answered, "So you can get your precious new base."

Ahead of him, Tarantulus's submersible finally arrived inside a small hanger inside the Nemesis. Tarantulus was feeling absolutely triumphant while Carpenter still looked like she needed more convincing.

"So it's a big ship," Carpenter commented as they stepped into a turbolift that would take them to the main bridge, "I've still yet to see anything that would convince me that this ship can destroy the Ark."

"Patience my dear femmebot, patience," Tarantulus cackled, "The others are probably just now awakening from their periods in stasis lock and probably do not know that we are not there yet. If you want more proof, then we'll happily blast a few of the surviving Maximals and Predicons with the Nemesis's primary weapon."

"It had better destroy someone like Optimus of Megatron," Carpenter commented back, "There are quite a few Predicons that I think the native organic life forms of this planet could destroy."

Tarantulus only cackled some more.

**The Ark**

"The Nemesis?" Cheetor gasped.

Optimus slowly nodded.

"Excuse me for asking, but what is the Nemesis?" Tigerhawk asked.

"The Nemesis was the most powerful ship in the ancient Decepticon space fleet," Optimus answered with a sigh, "And would probably still be considered more powerful then any modern Maximal or Predicon ship. And with the Ark sitting here defenseless, it would be an easy target for Tarantulus."

"But, um, if Tarantulus destroys the Ark, wouldn't that kill him too?" Rattrap asked, "I mean we got both ancient Autobots AND ancient Decepticons in the hold."

"According to Megatron, Tarantulus and some members of the Predicon alliance are actually descended from Unicron himself," Optimus replied, "Not from Autobots or Decepticons. He would survive the time storm."

"So what can we do?" Cheetor asked.

"Right now, I want you to get every Maximal that has flight capability into the CR chambers," Optimus answered, "We'll need them if we are to take on the Nemesis. Once that is done, I want you to help Rhinox get the Ark ready to be moved."

"Move the Ark?" Rattrap gasped, "We're under a mountain, and we haven't even tested the engines. The Ark ain't gonna move, boss-monkey."

"We need to get it to move," Optimus answered, "The Ark's weaponry was destroyed when Megatron collapsed the cave on it and the Nemesis's armor is strongest on its belly. We've got to get the Ark to a spot where Tarantulus won't be able to find it."

"Oh boy," Rattrap groaned, "We're all gonna die."

Optimus then turned to Tigerhawk who looked very fearful at the moment.

"As much as I'd like to welcome you back Tigatron, now Tigerhawk, I'm afraid I'm going to need you to come with me," Optimus answered.

"Of course," Tigerhawk nodded, "I assume we will be providing the front line defense against the Nemesis?"

"Actually we will be joining Megatron as the second line of defense," Optimus answered as the two exited the Ark and took off into the air.

"Second?" Tigerhawk questioned.

"Megatron has sent Rampage to dry and destroy the Nemesis while it's underwater and can not shoot back," Optimus answered, "And since Depthcharge was among the transformers still in stasis lock, we couldn't send a Maximal with him to make sure that Megatron doesn't give the crab any sort of 'secret' orders."

"You think Megatron would issue such orders?" Tigerhawk asked.

"Given that our past truces with Megatron have been nothing but a joke, I wouldn't put it past him to double cross us when the time seems covenant," Optimus replied, "and since the aliens have been defeated, the time is now covenant."

"But if you think Megatron will betray us, why should we go?" Tigerhawk questioned.

"Unfortunately, Megatron controlling the Nemesis will be less dangerous then Tarantulus controlling the Nemesis," Optimus sighed, "Largely since, Megatron would not survive the time storm."

The two then flew in silence for several moments until the came to a spot where they saw Megatron in his beast mode hovering above the ocean. The waters were largely calm below him.

"Anything happen yet?" Optimus asked as they got close.

Megatron looked up and nearly fell out of the sky when he saw Tigerhawk.

"Blast you Primal!" Megatron cursed, "Why have you sided with that thing? How is it even alive? It was completely offline when we left Tarantulus's cave."

"The alien Tigerhawk is dead," Optimus answered, "But Tarantulus didn't destroy the body."

"Somehow I doubt you've merely reanimated him as a drone," Megatron commented, "That doesn't sound like Maximal scientific morality."

"I was Tigatron when you last saw 'me', Megatron," Tigerhawk spoke, deciding to try and settle the matter quickly, "The aliens kidnapped Airazor and I and used our bodies to create Tigerhawk, but did not destroy our sparks."

"So that falcon transformer that had taken the name 'Airazor'?" Megatron asked.

"Was the original Airazor who had returned to Earth and activated a blank stasis pod," Optimus replied.

"I don't suppose you know where they are?" Megatron asked, "The rest of the blanks, I mean."

"I do not know," Tigerhawk answered, "I've lost a lot of what the alien Tigerhawk new as my spark has retaken control of my body. The only thing that I can remember that the alien Tigerhawk remembered is that Tarantulus intends to destroy the Ark."

Megatron only gave a growling sigh, indicating that he both didn't care and that he was still angered by the fact that the Maximals had put a Maximal spark inside the former Vok leader.

"Has anything happened?" Optimus asked again.

"Not at the moment," Megatron answered, "Rampage has yet to reach the Nemesis, and the ship has not risen above the waves."

"All we can do is wait then," Optimus sighed and looked down at the ocean below him.

**The Nemesis**

Tarantulus still looked triumphant as he and Carpenter made there way into the bridge of the ancient Decepticon ship.

"Most excellent," Tarantulus cackled as the two approached the main control panels, "The ship is still completely functional. My drones did their work well."

"Your drones?" Carpenter questioned.

"Yes," Tarantulus answered, "I've known about the Nemesis's location for as long as Megatron knew about the Ark's. The problem has been that the Nemesis was under water, and Megatron has this habit of being a tyrant. So I had my drones do the work of getting this ship back in order."

Tarantulus then pressed a few buttons, turning on the ship's main functions. Once those were online, he checked the status of all the equipment that was required onboard the Nemesis.

"And the drones have done their job well," Tarantulus said triumphantly, "There was no damage to the transwarp drive and the rest of the ship's damage has been completely repaired."

"So if this was an ancient Decepticon ship, how come there are now dead or stasis locked Decepticons here?" Carpenter asked, "I haven't seen any. And why are these controls fitted for our sized hands?"

"Again, that would be the work of my drones," Tarantulus 'smiled', "They're such hard workers."

"So, now I suppose we start the engines?" Carpenter asked.

"Yes," Tarantulus spoke in a triumphant voice, "Thrusters online!"

Outside the Nemesis, Rampage took his robot mode and looked up at the massive ship that 'lay' above him. There was a set of large closed doors in front of him that the track that he had been following led to. The transmetal crab then tapped the doors with one hand.

"I don't got enough missiles to blast through that," Rampage muttered to himself.

"Rampage, come in," Megatron's voice cut in over the radio, "Rampage, what is going on? Have you arrived at the Nemesis yet?"

"Yes," Rampage nodded as he looked to see a large outcropping of raw energon laying around the area and began to walk towards it.

"Is there any sign of Tarantulus's submersible?" Megatron demanded.

"Not outside the Nemesis," Rampage answered as he pulled a shard of energon from the ground, ignoring the pain that the unprocessed energon was bombarding him with, "I think he's already inside."

"Then destroy him you fool," Megatron ordered, "The Maximals have already arrived. I can not allow Tarantulus get the ship into the air and out of the ocean."

Rampage slammed the energon blade into gap between the doors and began to pry an opening that he could fit into. Once he was able to fit through, Rampage dove through the opening and landed hard on the floor of the hanger that he had entered. He found that in opening the doors manually, he had also half filled the room with water, but that wasn't a problem for him.

"No problem," Rampage answered as he began to walk towards a flight of nearby stairs.

"We have a guest," Carpenter commented as she looked at a security screen towards the rear of the bridge area.

"Hm?" Tarantulus asked and walked over to take a look and then saw Rampage leave the hanger into the hallway that would lead him to the turbolift to the bridge, "Megatron regained consciousness sooner then expected."

"That's not Megatron," Carpenter pointed out.

"Yes, but Megatron is the only one who can control Rampage," Tarantulus answered.

Tarantulus then turned to a different set of consoles and deactivated all the turbolifts in the Nemesis, making it impossible for Rampage to use them.

"There," Tarantulus said clapping his hands, "That should buy us enough time for my drones to destroy that crab, or at least weaken him."

"They're still onboard?" Carpenter asked.

"Of course," Tarantulus nodded, "The ones that laid the track for the submersible are quite large. I couldn't have them wandering around where Megatron could easily see and plan for them."

"Ah ha," Carpenter nodded, "The engines are ready to be fired."

"Excellent," Tarantulus answered.

**The Ark**

"They aren't supposed to look like that, are they?" Rattrap asked as he and Rhinox looked over the Ark's engines.

"No," Rhinox groaned, "It's just as I thought. The Ark's engines were damaged, both from its battle and the crash."

They looked over the scene and it was obvious that parts of the engines appeared singed and others looked like they had been knocked out of place.

"It's fixable though, right?" Rattrap asked.

"If all of the Maximals and Predicons were online as trained mechanics?" Rhinox commented, "If we weren't all too busy fighting one another? If we had an organized spacedock with all the possible tools and replacement parts? Then yes. Here, with as few as we have, we might manage to get the engines to fire… but that won't be enough to even budge the ship."

"Might be enough for us to slide down the mountain," Rattrap mumbled, "Cheetor clears out all the rock above us and we get the engines to give us just a little lurch and we slide down the mountain."

"We don't have the power for that," Rhinox said firmly, "We'll be lucky if we get enough power to register a power reading on a scanner."

"Great, so, we're gonna die?" Rattrap asked.

"Yep," Rhinox sighed, "I don't see how we're gonna get out of this one."

"And how much longer before the other fliers are done in the CR chamber?" Rattrap asked.

"About half an hour," Rhinox answered.

"Do you think they'd stand a chance against the Nemesis?" Rattrap asked, "If we got them all in the air in time?"

"Not a chance," Rhinox shook his head, "It took practically all the Predicons to do damage to the Axalon when were still using that as a base. The Nemesis and the Ark are much more powerful then the Axalon could have ever been."

Rattrap looked down with a defeated look on his face.

**The Nemesis**

Rampage was knocked off his feet as he suddenly felt the ship shake violently. He was already enraged when he found that the lifts didn't work and was now stuck walking through the ship's long hallways.

"The spider's got the engines working," Rampage grumbled, "I don't have much time."

Rampage took a few more steps as he searched for a flight of stairs to use when a large metal arm came out of nowhere and knocked him back against the far wall. He then looked up to see what looked like one of Tarantulus's drone robots, but it was as big as Rampage was. Tarantulus's face then appeared inside the light dome of the drone.

"I see you've finally found one of my toys to play with," Tarantulus cackled.

The drone then drove its arms down, intending to stab Rampage in the chest. The transmetal crab easily rolled away. Rampage then jumped to his feet and flipped the drone over and ripped its legs off.

"I'm going to kill you, you know that bug face," Rampage growled at Tarantulus's image.

"I highly doubt that," Tarantulus answered, "You don't have the time. The Nemesis is already rising to the surface of the ocean. Soon we will be heading straight for the Ark."

Rampage began to head for the stairway again and saw three more, large robot drones come walking toward him.

"And in regard to my toys," Tarantulus continued, "You might say I'm a collector."

In the air, Optimus, Tigerhawk, and Megatron tried to wait patiently. Megatron's radio link with Rampage had gone into intense static ever since Rampage entered the Nemesis, or at least since they assumed he entered the Nemesis, and the Predicon tyrant had been screaming into his radio ever since.

"Rampage!" Megatron screamed, "Do you hear me? Answer!"

"Let it go, Megatron," Optimus sighed, "The ship's signal itself is probably overpowering your radio signal."

"That could only be the case if Tarantulus has managed to start the Nemesis's engines," Megatron answered, "And that should not be possible. Tarantulus should be destroyed by now."

As Megatron finished speaking, there came a great rumbling noise from below them and the three transformers looked down to see the top of the Nemesis break the surface of the water and raise into the air. All three of them gasped in horror as they watched the massive ship rise before them.

"The Nemesis," Optimus spoke, fear and horror in his voice.

"That crab will pay for this!" Megatron fumed.

Before anyone could say anything, Tarantulus's voice came over a loudspeaker, sounding very surprised for some reason.

"Tigerhawk! My minion! Why are you not fighting the enemy?" Tarantulus roared, "I command you to fight."

"The alien controlled Tigerhawk and the drone you created are no more," Tigerhawk growled defiantly, "The spark of Tigatron now controls Tigerhawk. I am a Maximal, once more."

"A pity," Tarantulus's voice sighed.

On the Nemesis's bridge Tarantulus watched as his three most powerful enemies remained in a hovering position to watch his movements.

"You wanted to see how well the Nemesis works, well, now you've got your chance," Tarantulus cackled to Carpenter, "Now, ready the laser cannons!"

Optimus's optics widened as multiple forward facing laser cannons lifted up and began firing on him, Megatron, Tigerhawk.

"Incoming!" Optimus yelled as he dodged the first couple of shots.

"We've got to destroy his vertical stabilizers," Megatron spoke, pointing to a large fin-like structure that was underneath the bottom of the Nemesis, "Without them he can't hover and will therefore have to do more work to damage to the Ark."

Optimus converted to his vehicle mode and spoke, "I'll see if I can distract Tarantulus while you two destroy his stabilizers, then."

Megatron and Tigerhawk then watched Optimus flew away and up, drawing heavy fire from the Nemesis's main laser cannons. The Maximal commander managed to land a few pot shots against some of the laser cannons, but none were strong enough to do more then through off their aim.

"Come along," Megatron commanded to Tigerhawk, "He won't last long so we must make our shots count."

Megatron then began to fly down toward that fin-like structure with Tigerhawk following behind him. Megatron fired first by spewing out a long blast of fire from his mouth attempting to melt the metal structure where it met the rest of the Nemesis. Tigerhawk meanwhile fired the heavy missiles stored under his wings closer to the exhaust ports of the structure.

On the bridge of the Nemesis, Tarantulus and Carpenter followed the activities of the three transformers. The transmetal tarantula laughed when he saw two laser cannons score hits on Optimus, throwing the Maximal leader back some three hundred feet.

"Damage report on what the other two have done," Tarantulus ordered as he turned to look at Carpenter.

"They have attacked our vertical stabilizers," Carpenter answered, "If it should be destroyed, we can not hover in one place, and neither can we make an easy assent into space. However, the damage they've inflicted is barely noticeable."

Carpenter then pulled up a display that showed the region that Megatron and Tigerhawk were directly attacking.

"Megatron appears to be trying to melt the armor of the stabilizers where it meets the rest of the ship," Carpenter continued, "While Tigerhawk is attacking the exhaust systems."

"I don't want an analysis of what they're doing," Tarantulus growled, "I want the status."

"Nothing serious," Carpenter answered, sounding annoyed, "Megatron needs to raise the metal temperature 3000 degrees before the metal will begin to become 'weak' from the heat, and his first attack only raised the metal's temperature by one degree, and Tigerhawk's missiles have only blown the outer layer of paint off of the exhaust area."

Tarantulus then looked out at the rapidly approaching land.

"We can't afford to hold the risk," Tarantulus answered, "Arm the cluster bombs."

Tigerhawk was preparing to make a second run against the Nemesis's stabilizer exhaust system when he saw a series of compartments open from underneath the ship. Megatron was too busy trying to melt the ship's armor to notice.

"Look out!" Tigerhawk yelled as a series of small bombs fell out of those compartments.

Megatron looked up to only be hit by several of those cluster bombs. Tigerhawk easily avoided the remaining bombs that came his way, but saw that the bombs had knocked Megatron into stasis lock and the dragon transformer was doing a nose dive straight toward the ocean. Knowing that he couldn't just let the Predicon leader die, Tigerhawk sighed and dove toward Megatron's falling form.

"I hope the others are doing better then we are," Tigerhawk sighed as he carried Megatron toward the coast.

**The Ark**

"Will this work?" Cheetor asked as Rattrap and Rhinox used a set of high powered fusion lasers to melt and fuse some of the rocks that covered the Ark together.

"We don't have any other choice," Rhinox sighed, "The engines are too badly damaged to even consider getting the Ark airborne again. Our only hope is that we can harden the rock over the Ark to a point where it will act as extra armor."

Cheetor then placed another boulder that he had earlier removed when the idea was to move the Ark and then looked off toward the ocean.

"Wouldn't the Sentinel Shield work?" Cheetor asked.

"For a little while," Rhinox sighed, "Possibly longer then it would if this was the Axalon, but the Nemesis is simply to heavily armed. We need to do everything we possibly can to insure that the ship is protected."

"I got a bad feeling about all this," Cheetor spoke in a fearful voice.

**The Nemesis**

Rampage sighed as he finally was able to climb the stairs. He had been attacked by a least a dozen robotic drones that were at least as big as he was. He had destroyed every drone, and had done some serious damage to the interior of the hull near the stairwell, but the transmetal crab was not to be denied. He would find and destroy Tarantulus.

"I hate that Spider's toys," Rampage grumbled.

His progress however was not going unnoticed. On the bridge, Carpenter continually monitored the crab's progress. He was getting steadily closer to their level on the bridge.

"I don't mean to spoil your fun, Tarantulus," Carpenter commented, "But Rampage has destroyed most of your drones and is nearing our position."

Tarantulus walked over and looked at the screen for a few moments. His good mood disappearing instantly.

"Most of your remaining drones are stuck in a repair program and are fixing the damaged ones that they find," Carpenter reported, "The remaining ones are too small to keep up with Rampage."

"Blast," Tarantulus cursed slamming his fist down, "We'll need to forget about Optimus and Tigerhawk for now. We must make headway to the Ark."

Carpenter nodded and began to enter in the necessary change of course data.

"Also, be prepared to fight," Tarantulus answered and readied his own weapons, "If my drones can not catch up with Rampage we will need to hold him off long enough for the main computers to destroy the Ark."

Outside and on the ground, Tigerhawk and Optimus regrouped as they watched the Nemesis begin to change course. Optimus only sighed at the situation and then looked at the stasis locked Megatron.

"How is he?" Optimus asked after a few moments.

"In stasis lock," Tigerhawk sighed, "I doubt we did any real serious damage to that thing."

Optimus sighed, "Everything is depending now on Rampage then. He may be crazy, but he's smart enough to know that it would be suicidal for him to destroy the Ark."

Tigerhawk then looked and analyzed the Nemesis's current flight pattern. His optics widened when he fully realized which direction the Nemesis was headed in.

"Rampage had better hurry up then," Tigerhawk said urgently, "The Nemesis has increased speed and is now on a direct course with the Ark."

"Well, that's just Prime," Optimus groaned, "We've got to catch up with it."

"You head back to the Ark," Tigerhawk urged, "You are faster then I. You can warn the others and make sure everything is ready to either move or protect the Ark and its occupants. I will try my best to try and slow the Nemesis down."

"Good luck," Optimus spoke with a sigh and then rocketed away in vehicle mode as fast as he could go.

Tigerhawk, meanwhile took off again, leaving Megatron on the ground, and flew as quickly as he could toward the rear of the Nemesis. Once he was within missile range, he armed the missiles stored under his wings and fired on the Nemesis's main engines.

The Nemesis shook from stem to stern under a massive explosion. Tarantulus was thrown off his feet and Carpenter was knocked into console in front of her.

"What the blazes was that?" Tarantulus demanded.

Carpenter checked the damage report screens and her optics narrowed at the report.

"Tigerhawk has landed two missile hits inside the external engine energy vent patterns," Carpenter reported, "Engine power reduced by thirty percent, and we have radiation and coolant leaks throughout the engine areas. Apparently, his missiles set of a chain reaction."

"Are we still functional?" Tarantulus demanded.

"Total power is at seventy percent," Carpenter answered, "Weapons systems are still fully functioning and the transwarp drive will still function, provided we don't push it."

"Better not give that cat a chance to fire again," Tarantulus grumbled, "Deploy seeker missiles. Shoot him out of the sky."

"Roger, that," Carpenter answered and pressed a button near her.

Tigerhawk watched as various compartments along the sides of the Nemesis opened. He then prepared to dodge whatever attack that Tarantulus was preparing to launch at him. He then watched two missiles launch from inside the compartments that had opened. Tigerhawk quickly dove down to avoid them, but quickly saw that they were homing in on his signature. Tigerhawk then frantically dove down and away to try and avoid the missiles, but they continued to follow him and drove him closer and closer to ground level. Eventually they drove him low enough that one of his wings hit a large rock that protruded up from the ground and forced Tigerhawk to trip over his wings and slide along the ground for a few hundred feet. He barely had enough time to raise his wings as a shield to block the missile blow.

The missile explosion did even more damage to Tigerhawk, whose armor was now heavily beaten and a few of his transmetal two feathers were missing.

"This is Tigerhawk to base," Tigerhawk spoke weakly into his radio as the Nemesis continued on, "I've slowed the Nemesis down, but it is still on its way, and I'm now too damaged to continue the fight."

Tigerhawk only got static as a response, and sighed. He then proceeded to begin walking back toward the Ark.

**The Ark**

Optimus landed to see Rhinox, Rattrap, and Cheetor finished fusing the rocks together above the Ark.

"How are things going?" Rhinox asked.

"Not good," Optimus sighed, "Megatron is currently in stasis lock, and we've lost contact with Rampage. On top of that, our weapons have done virtually nothing to damage the Nemesis."

"Where's Tigerhawk?" Cheetor asked.

"He volunteered to try and slow the Nemesis down while I try and find out what's going on here," Optimus answered, "I've since lost contact with him."

Cheetor looked down, fearful that he'd lost his friend and mentor again.

"That status here isn't much better," Rhinox answered, "The Ark's engines need a space dock to repair them. There is no way we can move it. We've been trying to fuse the rocks together to try and add to the ship's armor and the Sentinel shield, but I don't know how well it will work."

"How much longer till we can get the other flyers online?" Optimus asked.

"A few cycles I suppose," Rhinox replied, "But it will take longer to explain the situation."

Optimus turned back to see the Nemesis on the horizon.

**Nemesis**

Rampage slowly picked himself up after the ship had finished shaking so violently. Apparently, Megatron and any Maximals that were helping him had landed a fairly significant hit on the Nemesis. He wasn't all that far from the ship's bridge, and was fairly determined to get there. He hadn't seen any more signs of Tarantulus's drones, and was confident that he could easily destroy whoever would be waiting for him on the bridge. He found the main door to it shut when he finally reached that level. Chuckling to himself, Rampage armed his missile launcher.

Focused on preparing to lay siege to the Ark, Tarantulus was startled completely by the sudden explosion of the main doorway behind him. Both he and Carpenter turned to see Rampage enter the bridge.

"Someone order an exterminator?" Rampage questioned.

"No," Tarantulus growled angrily, although some fear was evident and fired all his weapons at the transmetal crab.

Carpenter also fired on him with all her weapons. The attacks did little more then tickle Rampage.

"You call that an arsenal?" Rampage teased and lifted his missile launcher, "This is an arsenal."

Rampage then fired his weapons at both Tarantulus and Carpenter. Both Carpenter and Tarantulus easily dove under the missile fire, but Rampages barrage did succeed in destroying the control panels that controlled the Nemesis, which automatically began to lose altitude as the ship was no longer receiving commands from the bridge.

"You fool!" Tarantulus screamed, "You've killed us all!"

On the ground below them, Optimus and the other Maximals watched the massive Decepticon ship begin to crash toward the Earth. They noticed smoke coming from its bridge area.

"Oh, man, what is going on now?" Rattrap questioned as the Nemesis went over the Ark towards a long range of mountains in the distance.

"My guess," Optimus sighed, "Rampage finally reached the bridge.

All the Maximals then breathed a sigh of relief as the Nemesis disappeared behind the mountain range to the west of the Ark.

Tarantulus struggled to get to his feet as the Nemesis finally came to a stop. There was a pile of metal wreckage all around him, but he soon saw that the Nemesis was still largely in one piece, although now, very heavily damaged. He then saw Carpenter rise out of a different pile of wreckage.

"We're alive," Tarantulus stated in a surprised voice.

"No thanks to you," Carpenter growled, "You led us to defeat. You delayed too long. You relied on those worthless drones and now Rampage has destroyed our only means of destroying Megatron."

"A temporary setback," Tarantulus answered, "Easily recoverable."

"Stupid male," Carpenter retorted.

The rubble then shook beneath them as Rampage emerged in beast mode and quickly grabbed Carpenter in his pincers.

"Don't worry my sweat," Rampage said in a humorous tone, "You needn't worry about his stupidity any longer."

Before Carpenter could argue, Rampage tore the femmebot in half. Tarantulus then began to back away as Rampage turned to advance on him.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you," Rampage laughed and caught one of Tarantulus's legs in his pincers, "In fact you're the main reason I'm here."

Rampage then crushed the one leg in his pincers and began to slowly kill Tarantulus, relishing in the transmetal spider's screams.

**Outside Tarantulus's Cave**

Meanwhile, Scavenger finally awakened from stasis lock. He looked around to see the area had been heavily scarred by the previous battle between the Maximal and Predicon forces against the Vok invasion force. He also saw a few of his surviving members lying in stasis lock nearby and then looked out over the field. There was no sign of any living Maximal or Predicon in the area.

"Tigerhawk must have won," Scavenger commented as he looked out over the field, "I must get the others back to the Standing Stones. The real campaign against the surviving Maximals and Predicons will begin soon…"

**To Be Continued…**


	5. Chapter 5

Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.

Note: This story takes place shortly after "Stasis".

A Different War, Chapter 5

By TVfan

**Mountain Top**

Tigerhawk sat alone watching the sun shine down on the valley below him. Things had been rather quiet since the defeat of the Vok invaders and the destruction of the Nemesis. This allowed the transmetal two fuzor to think over how things had changed since he and Airazor had long ago been kidnapped by the aliens.

"Here you are," came a voice from above him.

Tigerhawk looked up to see Airazor land beside him.

"What are you doing way up here?" Airazor asked.

"Thinking really," Tigerhawk answered, "Mostly over how things have changed."

"Do you like being able to fly?" Airazor asked.

"It is a pleasant change," Tigerhawk answered, "But not the one that has occupied my mind."

There was a brief silence for a moment as Airazor joined Tigerhawk in looking down into the valley below them.

"It's the fact that we are now operating out of the Ark," Tigerhawk answered, "And my conflicting memories between Tigatron and the Vok Tigerhawk."

"Aren't most of those memories fading?" Airazor asked.

"Most are," Tigerhawk nodded, "But there are still some that remain."

Airazor then sighed, "You have every right to be a little mixed up after that. The Vok's emissary had a personality that was completely the opposite of you."

"Maybe," Tigerhawk replied, "But they had immense knowledge. More then we could possibly understand. More then I can understand, and I can't tell this to Rhinox unless I can understand it, and I don't. And most of that knowledge is slowly fading away now that the Vok no longer have any influence over this body."

"Be glad you're back among the Maximals again," Airazor urged, "Even if you could understand it, I doubt we could still use it. Even if Tarantulus and the Nemesis are no longer threats, Megatron is still out there and with the Vok defeated, I'm sure our truce is over."

"That has also been on my mind," Tigerhawk answered, "The Ark was a legendary ship that crashed on Earth. How can it be here?"

"Dinobot and Optimus believe that this planet actually is Earth," Airazor answered, "And given that the Ark is here, it is hard to argue against them on this issue."

"And Tarantulus wanted to destroy it," Tigerhawk commented, "Something has begun to tell me that we are here for more reasons then to 'stop' Megatron."

"Hmm?" Airazor asked.

"Cybertronian History claims that the Great War was the largest conflict between Autobots and Decepticons," Tigerhawk answered, "and in the end the Autobots won that war."

"Of course," Airazor replied, "Any Maximal or Predicon knows this."

Tigerhawk nodded, "But we have traveled back in time to the period before the Great War. In our time, the Beast Wars have long been over and if Megatron's true goal has been to destroy the Autobots in the Ark, then it should be clear that we will win in the long run."

"That should be good news then," Airazor remarked, "Shouldn't it?"

Tigerhawk looked down, "To me, it means that we were fated to come here. The Beast Wars have already been fought as far as the grand scheme of history is concerned, but for now and for us it is current events. Which means we do not know how it will end, but however it ends, the ending will be fated."

Airazor didn't know how to answer him.

"I would prefer that this war end with as few casualties as possible and no fatalities," Tigerhawk finished.

"We all do," Airazor answered, "We all do."

**Elsewhere**

Dinobot's optics narrowed as he surveyed the battle site where the Vok had attacked the relocated Predicon base. It was not a sight that he particularly liked. It was empty. The Maximals had earlier taken their fallen transformers back to the Ark to be recycled, but now both the stasis locked Predicons and Vok followers gone. The transmetal two velociraptor did not like these sorts of surprises.

"They are gone," Dinobot growled sounding frustrated that there were no transformers present, offline or otherwise that might be potential enemies.

"They probably left the area when they came back online," Silverbolt commented, "The Vok ones because the battle was over, the Predicons because their base has been practically destroyed."

"More then likely Megatron found a new base to operate out of," Dinobot countered, "That's why the Predicons aren't here."

"I'm more interested in finding out where they went," Rapther commented, "We can't fight an enemy that we can't find."

"That would require greater tracking skills," Dinobot grumbled, "Which for the moment is not our mission."

At this time, Blackarachnia returned from inspecting what had been Tarantulus's lair.

"Was there anything there, my love?" Silverbolt asked.

Blackarachnia shook her head, "Either Tarantulus somehow survived and fled to a 'safer' lair or someone else took all his equipment. There's nothing down in there but rock. Even the facilities that Tarantulus had that took him to the Nemesis are gone."

"Megatron would need something technological," Dinobot grumbled.

It was then Rapther that sighed, "Perhaps we should head back to the Ark then. Let Optimus know that they all got away."

**The Nemesis**

Megatron smiled his followers began repairing most of the damage that had been done to the Nemesis when it 'crashed'. He was most pleased with the way his plan had succeeded once he learned of Tarantulus's plan to destroy the Ark. While he wished there was a way he could easily destroy the Autobots inside it and a way for him to make the Nemesis flyable again, he was perfectly willing to settle for a technologically advanced base. It would replace the destroyed Darkside.

"Yes," the Predicon tyrant spoke in a confident voice, "This will do nicely. And with its armament we can insure that the Maximals never pull a little stunt like the one they pulled with the Darkside."

"Excuse me boss, but I think I got something you would like to see," came Quickstrike's voice from one of the recently repaired computer panels.

"What is it?" Megatron demanded as he came closer.

"Well boss, I got the sensors up and running again, and I'm already getting a rather strange reading," Quickstrike answered, "It looks like a lot of them alien thingy's we've encountered already."

"Alien?" Megatron asked, sighing that now with Tarantulus destroyed and Blackarachnia with the Maximals he now lacked a real scientific officer.

"Well, the computer ain't sayin' the signal's normal," Quickstrike replied.

Megatron double checked the computer and found that the scanners had indeed detected something that was emitting an alien energy signature. It perplexed him slightly as all of the alien devices that had been left on Earth had either been destroyed or fallen into the hands of the Maximals, and the alien invasion had just been defeated. There should be no alien presence on the planet, at least not at the moment.

"What do you want done, boss?" Quickstrike asked.

"I want you, Scorpinok, and Spine to go to that location and observe what is going on," Megatron ordered, "After having just defeated one alien invasion, I do not want to have to deal with another."

"Right boss," Quickstrike answered and hurried off.

**The Ark**

"Aliens?" Optimus asked, "Didn't we just beat them?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that any of the technology that they brought with them are still active," Rhinox answered, "It's clearly an alien signal."

"Where's it coming from?" Optimus asked.

"Oddly enough, the standing stones," Rhinox replied

"Call Rattrap in," Optimus sighed, "I'm going to need both you and him for this."

**The Standing Stones**

"Where is he?" Scavenger demanded out loud sounding infuriated.

"He isn't in the surrounding area," Nightwing answered, "and there is no sign of any of the Maximal prisoners or the Predicon ones anywhere in the complex."

Scavenger then gave a heavy sigh. He had managed to revive all of the Vok acolytes that were only in stasis lock and get them back to the Standing Stones, but only found that there was no one there. This deeply worried Scavenger as he feared that Tigerhawk had completed his mission and then abandoned his followers.

"What do our scanners show?" Scavenger asked turning to one of the computer stations.

"I'm not getting a reading on anything that is outside of our sensor's line of sight," Croaker answered from her position, "Various mountains and gullies block all visual scanning. And energy scanning seems to be limited to only a few dozen miles."

"Impossible," Scavenger spoke, "Tigerhawk insured that all our scanning equipment could see every inch of the globe and scan this entire continent with ease. Our technology can not be limited."

"Then it's broken," Croaker answered back, "Because I'm not getting any reading on anything other then what I just told you."

Scavenger then shoved Croaker aside and took a closer look at the equipment. He was surprised to find that Croaker was telling the truth. He was completely dumbfounded by this.

"I don't believe this," Scavenger spoke, "This isn't possible."

"It would appear that it is possible," Nightwing commented, "The Maximals must have engineered some sort of device to block our sensors, as they have already interfered in the campaign to restore order to this planet."

Scavenger then turned to other Vok acolytes that were in the immediate area and began to issue new orders.

"Tigerhawk must have taken an individual mission somewhere in this area," Scavenger answered, "I will go search for him. The rest of you are to retain defensive positions around the standing stones. Should either the Maximals or Predicons attack, destroy them."

Scavenger then departed looking visibly nervous.

**Outside the Ark**

Dinobot and his team returned to the Maximal base just as Optimus, Rhinox, and Rattrap were preparing to leave. Optimus stopped his group to get the report from the returning Maximals.

"Anything there?" Optimus asked.

"Nothing," Dinobot answered, "All of the transformers that were in stasis lock that were left there are now gone and all of the available technology that Tarantulus might have left behind is now gone."

"Gone?" Optimus asked, "Shouldn't Megatron have returned to that cave to operate out of again?"

"That was never a likely option," Blackarachnia answered, "He likes to have some sort of 'bargaining chip' to keep you from launching some sort of all out attack against him, be it a hostage or a defensive system. With our discovery of his using Tarantulus's lair as a base, he would have probably decided to look for a new base from the very moment that the battle against the Vok ended."

"That sounds like Megs alright," Rattrap commented.

"Any idea as to what happened there?" Rhinox asked.

"Megatron obviously recovered the technology from Tarantulus's lair and recovered the Predicons that had been in stasis lock earlier," Silverbolt answered, "And then left with them. The Vok transformers probably came back online later and left."

"You mean they didn't fight each other when they came back online?" Optimus asked.

"Or wiped the other out if one came online before the other?" Rattrap added.

"There was no wreckage, so I doubt that one side was destroyed," Dinobot answered, "Although it could be possible that one side was taken hostage if one faction came online before the other."

"So either the Vok are prisoners of the Predicons or the Predicons are prisoners of the Vok," Optimus answered.

"I'd say let them duke it out then," Rattrap commented, "The alien Tigerhawk is gone, so they're no threat to us now, right?"

"The Predicons are more likely to be the prisoners in this case," Rhinox spoke up.

"What?" Rapther asked, "But Megatron likely arrived there before they came online."

"Maybe so, but the Vok transformers coming online first would explain a few things that we detected while you were out," Rhinox explained.

"What is it?" Silverbolt asked, looking rather curious.

"We detected an alien signal coming from the area around the area of the standing stones," Rhinox explained slowly, "Now, that are has been dormant since our incident with the probe. But, it's suddenly come to life. I doubt that the Predicons have any means of activating it. With Tarantulus probably destroyed and Megatron with no real particular interest, unless it clearly looks as if it could help him."

"And with the loss of the energon crystal that was there and the departure of the prode, Megatron has found that area to be strategically worthless," Dinobot commented.

"Which is why we're going to check it out," Optimus spoke, "If the Vok transformers have activated it, we have to see what they have done and what they could do. Also, with the alien Tigerhawk destroyed, we might be able to persuade them to join us."

"How will you explain the existence of the Maximal Tigerhawk to them?" Rapther asked.

"Mostly by saying that the physical body still exists, but that the 'influence' controlling it is a Maximal spark now, and not a Vok entity," Optimus answered.

"Do you need any help?" Silverbolt asked.

"Not with this mission," Optimus answered, "the best you can do would be to return to your normal patrols and recon for wherever Megatron's taken the remaining Predicons to."

**Mountain Top**

"We should get headed back to the base," Airazor commented as she glanced to Tigerhawk, "This is a lovely view, but there are other things we must attend to."

Tigerhawk looked to her and nodded. He then got up slowly.

"You're right of course," Tigerhawk spoke calmly, "Besides, I can not see the future. If I did, perhaps I would be a little more at peace."

Airazor was about to answer when she was suddenly hit from behind by a missile blasted and thrown into Tigerhawk. She fell into stasis lock before she could even give out a cry of pain. Tigerhawk gasped in shock and horror at the sight of this and watched as Airazor fell at his feet. He then looked up to see a vulture transformer, in robot mode, land in front of him.

"You should have told us you were beginning the campaign against the Maximals, my Lord," Scavenger spoke.

"What?" Tigerhawk answered, "Who are you?"

"I am Scavenger, my Lord, your chief acolyte," Scavenger answered, "You sent me here to recover the Maximal's stasis pods to form your army."

Tigerhawk then quickly realized that this was one of the Vok transformers and that he thought that he was still the alien entity that had previous controlled Tigerhawk. He did his best to try and keep his shock at Airazor being wounded quiet for the moment.

"Is this a test, my Lord?" Scavenger asked.

"Tell me, why did you shoot this particular Maximal?" Tigerhawk asked, trying to sound like the alien influenced version.

"Because she is not an acolyte of the Vok," Scavenger answered, "Both the Maximals and Predicons are threats to the ordered galaxy that the Vok control."

"And do you know who started the war between them?" Tigerhawk questioned.

"It does not matter," Scavenger answered, "The Predicons endanger the flow of time by trying to change it. The Maximals endanger the flow of time by fighting the Predicons. Therefore, both factions deserve extermination. Have I done something to displease you, my Lord?"

"Your 'Lord' is no longer among the living," Tigerhawk answered and grabbed Scavenger by the shoulders, "I am a Maximal! And you are the only one who is evil here."

"Impossible," Scavenger said, "You must not be well, my Lord. Those weak Maximals and Predicons could never defeat you."

Tigerhawk then opened his chest compartment to reveal the Maximal spark that was operating inside him. Scavenger gazed at this with surprise and horror and then looked at Tigerhawk like a victim of the worst form of betrayal.

"Your 'Lord' died on the night that he began his war against all the Cybertronians on this planet," Tigerhawk answered, "His orders to condemn both the bad guys in the Beast Wars, the Predicons, and the good guys, the Maximals, made both factions ally with each other to defeat the alien Tigerhawk. And in the end, it was Tarantulus that did him, and he appeared to be waiting for him."

Scavenger then delivered a kick to Tigerhawk's chest and flipped backward to land on his feet.

"I do not know how you stole my Lord's body, but you will pay for doing so, Maximal," Scavenger growled as he readied his blaster again.

"In actuality, it was your 'Lord' who stole my body," Tigerhawk answered, "I was once the Maximal Tigatron. One of two Maximals your 'Lord' abducted because we came within a hundred yards of some alien plant."

"Die!" Scavenger growled and fired his blaster.

Tigerhawk ducked behind one of his wings and barely felt a thing as the shot bounced off his transmetal two armor. Tigerhawk then aimed his feather missiles at Scavenger and watched as the lead Vok acolyte was destroyed in one shot. Tigerhawk then lifted up the stasis locked body of Airazor and took off, hoping to get her back to the Ark and a CR chamber in time.

**Standing Stones**

"Uh-oh," Whiteout commented, "I'm reading two separate forces headed this way. Looks like three Maximals and three Predicons."

"How did they find our base?" Nightwing asked.

"I don't know, but what's worse is that we've lost contact with Scavenger," Whiteout answered, "He appears to have gone out of range."

"What should we do?" Croaker asked.

"We will defend our base," Nightwing vowed.

Outside the base, both the Maximal and Predicon teams arrived outside the stone tower that the alien Tigerhawk had earlier raised. There was some suspicion between both groups as they came closer.

"What are you doing here?" Scorpinok demanded.

"Probably the same thing you're doing," Optimus answered and gestured to the stone tower, "Trying to figure out what's going on with this."

"So you detected the alien signal as well," Scorpinok commented, "I'm afraid that this tower belongs to the Predicons."

"There's nothing here that could be of value," Rattrap commented, "It's just a signal. Nothin' ol' Megs can get worked up about."

"That is yet to be seen," Spine answered, "And regardless of that, this tower belongs to the Predicons."

Spine was about to fire his blaster at the smaller Maximal when a series of shots rained down on them from above. The group then looked up to see the remaining Vok acolytes dropping down from the top of the tower in an attacking formation upon the group. Mammoth was the only Vok acolyte who wasn't firing as he held both Wolffang and Croaker in his arms, so he could use his superior strength to take the hard impact of hitting the ground. Nightwing and Whiteout were both using their ability to fly and were blasting away. This counter attack had forced both the Maximals and Predicons to retreat into a ditch where they had some cover.

"Dang it, them dang aliens seem to have survived," Quickstrike commented as he fired a blast at Mammoth, but missed.

"Yes, a portion of them did," Optimus answered, "I'd think that in the best interests of our 'truce' we don't fight each other."

"Agreed, Primal," Scorpinok spoke up, "But only until these aliens are defeated. Then you will have to leave."

"Fine," Optimus sighed and stood up and fired his main cannons, hitting Mammoth in the chest and knocking him back.

"Charge!" Nightwing screamed and rushed forward, diving into Rattrap and lifting him into the air.

"Let me go!" Rattrap yelled at the raven transformer.

Croaker charged at Rhinox, hoping that her speed and maneuverability would cancel out the Maximal scientist's greater weight. She, however, did not take his chain guns into account and took several direct hits before falling at Rhinox's feet. Rhinox then put one foot down on her back to hold her in place. When she attempted to shoot at him, he batted her blaster away.

"That is a strict no-no," Rhinox said in a low voice.

Wolffang charged at Quickstrike and managed to land a kick that knocked Predicon back, but didn't get any time do anything as he was hit in the back by a missile from Scorpinok that threw him into Optimus's side where he lay groaning in pain and nearly in stasis lock. Spine, meanwhile, had charged Whiteout and grabbed the white whale transformer by one arm and threw him into the tower. He then stood over the Vok acolyte preparing to finish him off.

Nightwing continued to take Rattrap higher into the air when he was suddenly hit by a barrage of gatling gun bullets and lost the ability to maintain flight. He screamed with pain and dropped the transmetal rat and fell toward the Earth. Rattrap panicked at having been dropped, but suddenly found his descent end rather gently. He then looked up to see that Tigerhawk had caught him by one leg.

"Cease this violence!" Tigerhawk shouted in a demanding voice as he lowered Rattrap to the ground.

Nightwing, who had landed on Mammoth, preventing the other Vok acolyte from launching another attack on Optimus, was now in great surprise to see Tigerhawk landing next to the Maximals and not engaging in combat. Nightwing also felt personally betrayed that Tigerhawk had shot at him.

"My lord!" the Vok acolytes gasped in unison.

"I am not your 'lord'," Tigerhawk answered, "That alien influence was destroyed. I am Tigerhawk, Maximal transformer. And I urge that this violence cease."

"But they threat the Vok's order!" Mammoth spoke.

"No one can 'order' an entire galaxy," Tigerhawk answered, "And any attempt to do so would be evil. And again, I am not the alien Tigerhawk. I am the Maximal Tigerhawk."

"Then you've betrayed us!" Nightwing growled, "And you shot me on purpose!"

"I could not allow you to hurt Rattrap," Tigerhawk answered, "Despite his more annoying tendencies."

"Then you side with the Maximals?" Croaker asked.

"Yes," Tigerhawk answered, "The Maximals are not the ones who started this conflict and they generally did not want the war that started to occur at all."

"But they threaten the order," Nightwing growled.

"The Maximals are trying to protect the fabric of time," Tigerhawk answered, "Fighting them in addition to the Predicons was an act of stupidity by the alien Tigerhawk."

"You dare to call our lord stupid?" Nightwing growled.

"We would never do that," Scorpinok commented, "Although, you would have to submit to Megatron's authority."

"But I could punish this traitor for betraying our lord?" Nightwing asked.

"Of course," Scorpinok answered.

"You would betray our lord?" Mammoth roared as he got up and grabbed Nigthwing, "I'll crush you with my bare hands!"

Nightwing managed to get free, but it quickly became clear that the other Vok acolytes were siding with the Maximals.

"I'll take you all on!" Nightwing screamed.

Scopinok sized up the sides and realizing that while they were evenly matched they stood a chance of wiping out the Maximals, but that was no longer possible.

"Not today," Scorpinok spoke, "You may have won the tower, Maximals, but Megatron will still win the war!"

"Unlikely," Tigerhawk growled as the Predicons disappeared, Nightwing slowly.

"We will serve you, no matter who you side with, my Lord," Croaker spoke as Rhinox let her up.

"Don't call me 'Lord'," Tigerhawk answered, "I'm not the alien Tigerhawk. That version is dead."

"Dead?" Mammoth asked, sounding skeptical.

"Yes," Optimus spoke up, "Apparently, Tarantulus was waiting for him, and used a device designed to counteract their energy to destroy the alien influence. Once that happened the spark of Tigatron, whose body the Vok had used to create Tigerhawk, took possession of the body."

"But the Maximals still seek to protect the time flow?" Whiteout asked.

"That is our primary concern," Optimus replied, "You are free to join us. You will probably be safer in doing so."

"But what about this tower?" Croaker asked.

"Is there anything that Megatron could use?" Rattrap asked.

"Not really," Whiteout answered, "Only monitoring equipment. All of which is rather limited."

"Then leave it," Rattrap commented, "Megatron won't get much out of this place if monitoring equipment is all you have."

"What do you say?" Croaker asked to Tigerhawk.

"Optimus is the leader of the Maximals, not I," Tigerhawk answered.

Croaker then turned her attention to the Maximal commander.

"If all it has is monitoring equipment, then it won't be of any real use to either side," Optimus answered, "It would be better just to let them have it."

"Very well," Mammoth answered, "We will join you, Optimus Primal. If it will protect the time flow, we will join you."

"Thanks," Optimus answered, shaking the former Vok acolyte's hand.

**The End…**


End file.
